Australia lost 46,300 jobs in October when compared to September for a total of some 12.8 million jobs, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced Thursday. The unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in October from 4.6% in September.

Full-time employment fell by 40,400 jobs in October to approximately 8.9 million, according to the bureau. Part-time employment fell by 5,900 jobs to nearly 3.9 million people.

Reuters reported the decline in jobs came as a surprise, but a rebound in hiring is anticipated to be upcoming.

Victoria posted the biggest month-over-month decline in employment in October. The number of jobs fell by 1.5% to 3.3 million. It was followed by Tasmania, which saw jobs decrease by 0.8% in October to 261,000.

Employment in Queensland fell 0.3% month-over-month to approximately 2.6 million.

New South Wales, however, saw employment rise by 0.6% in October to nearly 4.0 million people.