June marks Australia’s ninth month in a row of job growth. According to the ABS, 14,000 fresh positions were added to the labour force during the month. 62,000 people found full-time employment, whilst part-time employment saw a 48,000 drop. That means that over the last year, full-time employment has grown by 175,400 people.

“Full-time employment has increased by around 187,000 persons since September 2016, with particular strength over the past five months, averaging around 30,000 persons per month,” ABS’s Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said. “Full-time employment now accounts for about 68 per cent of employment, however this is down from around 72 per cent a decade ago.”

Source: ABS

New South Wales and Victoria accounted for a great deal of the growth, with the states adding 11,600 and 7,300 jobs respectively. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory did also see a decrease in unemployment. South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, however, saw a spike in unemployment.

Hours worked and participation increased

The number of people either working, or actively seeking employment, peaked 0.1 points to 65%. The seasonally adjusted monthly hours jumped by 8.9million hours to a total of 1,703.5million hours worked nationally.

The release of the figures was met with a rise in the Australian dollar, putting it at US78.89c.

Unemployment rate remains steady

Despite the full-time employment growth, the unemployment rate remained fairly stagnant.

May’s unemployment rate – previously reported by the ABS as 5.5% – was re-estimated at 5.6%. June remained steady on this figure, also scoring a 5.6% seasonally adjusted rate of employment. These figures, although an increase on what was previously thought for May, still see Australia very close to the “natural rate of unemployment”.

The trend participation rate for those aged 15-64, which controls for an aging population, saw 0.1 percentage points growth to 77.3%.

Do you have a complicated mix of full-time, part-time and casual employees? Looking to grow or manage your workforce? Roubler can help. As Australia’s leading end-to-end HR workforce management software, Roubler can help your business handle every aspect of the employment lifecycle. Recruit, assess, onboard, schedule, track and pay with ease today! Get in touch today, or find out more here.