Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.6% in July 2021, down 2.8% when compared to July 2020, according to data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics.

When compared to the previous month, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.3%.

Australia’s JobKeeper Payment programme, its Covid-19 stimulus jobs package, ended on 28 March 2021.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 364,900 year on year to 639,200.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said the July data coincided with the early weeks of the Greater Sydney lockdown, increased restrictions in other parts of New South Wales, and a series of changes in restrictions in other parts of the country.

“The labour market changes in New South Wales between June and July had a large influence on the national figures,” Jarvis continued. “There were big falls in New South Wales in both employment (-36,000) and unemployment (-27,000), with the labour force reducing by around 64,000 people. In addition, hours worked in New South Wales fell by 7.0% These changes offset increases in employment and hours in Victoria.”

“Before the pandemic, people in New South Wales accounted for 31.8% of national employment and Victorians accounted for 26.5%. Large changes in these two states are important in understanding changes in the Australian labour market,” Jarvis said.  

The youth unemployment rate remained at 10.2%.

The number of employed persons totalled 13.15 million, up 5.4% over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate stood at 66.0%, up 1.3% compared to the same period last year.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs totalled 1.77 million, up 5.7% over the same period last year.