Australia Sept unemployment rate falls to 4.8 pct from Aug

Australia's unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 4.8 pct in September from August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said. The September jobless rate was below the market consensus forecast of an unchanged result at 4.9 pct. The ABS said that on a seasonally adjusted basis the number of people employed increased by 31,400 to 10.2952 mln compared with consensus forecasts of a 33,000 fall. Full-time employment increased 36,000 to 7.3606 mln while part-time employment fell 4,600 to 2.9345 mln. The number of people looking for work fell by 6,800 to 514,700. Of these, the number looking for full-time work decreased 5,600 to 360,100 while the number looking for part-time work fell 1,200 to 154,600. The participation rate for the month increased to 65.1 pct on a seasonally adjusted basis from 65.0 pct in August.
The ABS provided the following table of data:
September 2006 August 2006 Seasonally Adjusted Jobless rate 4.8 pct 4.9 pct
Participation rate 65.1 pct 65.0 pct
Employed 10.2952 mln 10.2638 mln
Unemployed 514,700 521,500
Full-time employed 7.3606 mln 7.3246 mln
Part-time employed 2.9345 mln 2.9391 mln
Trend Jobless rate 4.8 pct 4.8 pct
Employed 10.2875 mln 10.2602 mln
Unemployed 516,100 517,900