Australia's unemployment rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.1 percent in May, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - unchanged from the previous month and in line with forecasts.
The male unemployment rate was steady at 4.8 percent and the female unemployment rate increased 0.3 percentage points to 5.5 percent.
The Australian economy added 38,900 jobs to 11,537,900 in May, the data showed - blowing past expectations for a flat reading after adding 15,500 jobs in April.
Full-time employment increased 46,100 to 8,107,900, while part-time employment decreased 7,200 to 3,430,100.
Unemployment decreased to 615,800, while aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 4.7 million hours to 1,627.2 million hours
The participation rate came in at 65.5 percent in May, topping forecasts for a reading of 65.2 percent - which would have been unchanged from a month earlier.
The labor force underutilization rate increased 0.1 pts to 12.6 percent. The male labor force underutilization rate decreased 0.3 pts to 10.4 percent, while the female labor force underutilization rate increased 0.6 pts to 15.2 percent.
Upon the release of the data, the aussie advanced against its major counterparts, trading near 0.9954 against the greenback, 1.2638 against the euro, 79.01 against the yen and 1.2909 against the kiwi.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News