Australia's jobless rate has held steady at 4.2 per cent, as expected, despite a surprise fall in employment.
About 5400 jobs were lost from the economy in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Thursday, after forecasters had pencilled in a rise in employment of about 21,000.Â
Despite the fall, Australia's relatively low unemployment rate was unchanged because the number of unemployed people fell by 900, said Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour statistics Sean Crick.
"This meant that the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2 per cent whilst the participation rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 66.8 per cent," he said.
Full-time jobs fell by 41,000 but that was partly balanced out by a rise in part-time employment ofr 36,000.
Females made up the bulk of the loss in full-time work, down 30,000.
The employment-to-population ratio fell by 0.1 percentage points to 64.0 per cent.
Thursday's labour force readout came after the United States central bank cut interest rates rates for the first time this year overnight.