Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November increased to 3.9%, up 0.4% over the previous year, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

When compared to the prior month, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1%.

The number of unemployed persons totalled 572,000, up 16.5% over the year and up 3.4% over the month.

By state, the Northern Territory saw the highest unemployment rate at 4.6% while New South Wales saw the lowest at 3.4%.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate totalled 3.8%, up 0.3% over the year and flat when compared to October 2023.

Meanwhile, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of employed persons stood at 14,257,500 in November, up 3.2% over the year and 0.4% over the month.

Monthly hours worked across all jobs totalled 1.94 billion in November, up 2.2% from the year prior and down 0.1% over the month.

The country’s labour force participation rate was 67.1% in November, up 0.4% annually and flat when compared to the prior month.

Further data showed that in the September quarter 2023, 67 labour disputes (including strikes and lockouts) occurred, four less than the previous quarter. At the same time, 18,800 employees were involved, an increase from 10,500 in the previous quarter while 37,100 working days were lost, an increase from 10,200 in the previous quarter.