2021.02.1800:30:00UTC+00Australia Jobless Rate Falls To 6.4% In January

The unemployment rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 6.4 percent in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That was beneath expectations for 6.5 percent and down from 6.6 percent in December.

The Australian economy added 29,100 jobs last month to 12,939,900 - shy of forecasts for 40,000 new jobs after gaining 50,000 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time jobs added 59,000 after gaining 35,700 a month earlier. Part-time jobs lost 29,800 after adding 14,300 in the previous month.

The participation rate came in at 66.1 percent, missing expectations for 66.2 percent - which would have been unchanged from the December reading. The rate increased by 0.1 pts for men (to 71.2 percent) and decreased by 0.2 pts for women (to 61.2 percent).

The employment to population ratio increased to 61.9 percent, while the underemployment rate decreased to 8.1 percent. The unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 6.4 percent (1.1 pts higher than a year ago).

Unemployed people decreased by 34,300 to 877,600 (and increased by 156,000 over the year to January 2021). The youth unemployment rate remained at 13.9 percent (and increased by 1.8 pts over the year to January 2021). Over the year to January 2021, employment decreased by 0.4 percent or 45,600 people.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 86.0 million hours (4.9 percent) to 1,667 million hours and decreased by 5.7 percent over the year, larger than the 0.4 percent decrease in employed people.