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Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Economic Trends / Government and Politics / Markets

Unemployment rate tipped to increase to 5.8pc

Wednesday, 13 Jul 2016 15:58:32 | Liz Hobday

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the addition of about 10,000 jobs. (Nathan Coates)

Economists are expecting the unemployment rate to increase slightly to 5.8 per cent when figures are released on Thursday.

If expectations are met, it would be the first increase in unemployment figures this year.

The median expectation of economists surveyed by Bloomberg is for an unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent for June, up from 5.7 per cent in May, with about 10,000 jobs created.

This result would be a small piece of bad economic news for the new Turnbull Government, which campaigned on a platform of jobs and growth.

But the credibility of the official unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been questioned in the past 18 months, after an unexpected spike in the unemployment data.

National Australia Bank's David de Garis said he expects to see a fall of 17,000 jobs in the official unemployment numbers, but said some of this is to do with the way the ABS collates its figures.

"The demand for labour is still rising, maybe not rising at as fast a rate as it was one to two quarters ago, but rising nevertheless," he said.

"We also have to keep in mind that these are samples, it's not unusual at all that you get some rises, then a fall for a month or two, and then perhaps things spring back again, so the trend will be the important thing here," Mr de Garis said.

There are also questions about the types of jobs being created, with little growth in full-time employment in recent data, and the average number of hours worked per employee per month at all-time lows.

AustraliaPlus


 

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