Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in October 2024, up 0.3% when compared to October 2023 and no change from September 2024, according to the latest research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In total, there were 625,800 unemployed persons in October 2024, up 11.9% over the year and up 1.3% over the prior month.

Meanwhile, the number of employed persons stood at 14,537,500, up 2.7% over the prior year and 0.1% compared to the previous month.

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said in a press release, “This was the third month in a row that the unemployment rate had been at 4.1%. This is around 0.6% above its recent low of 3.5% in June 2023, but is 1.1% below March 2020, when it was 5.2%.”

“The number of unemployed people in October was 67,000 higher than a year ago, but was still 82,000 people lower than in March 2020,” Jarvis added.

The country’s labour force participation rate stood at 67.1% in October, up from 67.2% in September and up 0.3% compared to October 2023.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs totalled 1.97 billion in October 2024, up from 1.96 billion in September 2024 (0.1%) and up 2.5% compared to the same period a year ago.

“Since the start of the pandemic, growth in hours worked has been more varied than employment. However, in recent months, we have been seeing a more consistent relationship between them,” Jarvis said.

In trend terms, the unemployment rate in Australia also stood at 4.1%, no change on the previous month and up 0.3% compared to the prior year.