- Bill Shorten, Leader of the Australian Labour Party
The Australian jobless rate jumped unexpectedly last month, official figures revealed on Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted number of employed people fell 9.7% in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Wednesday. Among them, full-time employment soared to 8,158.900 but part-time jobs dropped to 3,840.000. Accordingly, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly gained 0.2% compared to January, which is higher than experts estimated. In particular, the number of unemployed persons rose 26,000, out of which the number of full-time job seekers accounted for 10.800 and part-time job seekers for 15.100. Consequently, the monthly hours worked plunged 20.5 million hours. Thus, the current unemployment rate of 5.9% is the highest since January 2016. Nevertheless, the participation rate in February remained unchanged and came in at 64.6%. On a quarterly basis, the seasonally adjusted labour force underutilisation rate advanced to 14.6%. The underutilisation rate among men and women rose 12.6% and 16.8%, respectively. In regional terms, the largest advance in employment of 10,600 was registered in Victoria, while the largest decline in employment of 11,500 and 5,500 was seen in Queensland and Western Australia, accordingly.
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