Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by 1.1% to a rate of 6.4% in January 2021, compared to the 5.3% rate in January 2020, according to data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Unemployed persons increased by 156,000 over the year to January 2021 to a total of 877,600.

When compared to the previous month, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by 0.2%. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 34,300.

Meanwhile, employment increased by 29,100 people (0.2%) to 12.93 million people. Over the year to January 2021, employment decreased by 0.4% or 45,600 people.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in January 2021, monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 86.0 million hours (4.9%) to 1.66 billion hours. Over the year it decreased by 5.7%, larger than the 0.4% decrease in employed people.

The labour force participation rate stood at 66.1%, up 0.1% compared to the year prior.