The number of employed Australians reached its highest rate ever in June, according to a recent survey, but the unemployment rate still grew slightly.
Roy Morgan estimates that there were 11.22 million employed Australians in June, up 156,000 since May.
Growth was mainly driven by a surge in full-time employment to 7.64 million, but part time employment also increased by 25,000 jobs to 3.58 million.
“Monthly employment has now increased for four straight months,” Roy Morgan's Gary Morgan said. “However, despite this growth, overall employment has only increased 100,000 since October 2010.”
Measured unemployment rates increased to 7%, up by 0.1% from May and 1.1% - or 163,000 - since June 2010.
There are now 467,000 Australians looking for full-time work, and another 378,000 Australians hunting for part-time positions, Roy Morgan estimates.
This would represent an unemployment rate of 2.1%, compared with the 4.9% estimate by the ABS for May.
The number of underemployed Australians – classified as part-time workers or consultants looking for more hours – also grew 0.6% year-on-year.
Another potentially alarming statistic for the overall labour market is that the number of hours worked is declining even as more people get jobs.
“The latest indications are that although unemployment has been trending down slightly this year, the total monthly hours worked peaked in October 2010 at 1.787 billion hours, and has dropped significantly this year despite the growth in the Australian workforce,” Morgan said.
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