ABS reports 64,000 new jobs have been created in September.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 per cent in September, in line with the revised figure for August, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This is bad news for mortgage holders looking for a stronger signal of a rate cut later this year.

The economy added 64,100 jobs last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday, significantly more than the 25,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate held at 4.1 per cent, below analysts’ estimates.

Despite the slight fall in the number of unemployed people, the strong rise in employment saw the participation rate rise by 0.1 percentage point to a record high of 67.2 per cent.

“Employment has risen by 3.1 per cent in the past year, growing faster than the civilian population growth of 2.5 per cent. This has contributed to the increase in the employment-to-population ratio by 0.1 percentage point, and 0.4 percentage points over the past year, to a new historical high of 64.4 per cent,” Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics said.

“The record employment-to-population ratio and participation rate shows that there are still large numbers of people entering the labour force and finding work in a range of industries, as job vacancies continue to remain above pre-pandemic levels.

While the number of unemployed people fell slightly to 616,000 in September, over the last 12 months there are signs of weakness.

The ABS said there are 90,000 more unemployed people this year compared with September 2023.

“Even with the rise over the last year, there are still around 93,000 fewer unemployed people than there were just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the unemployment rate was at 5.2 per cent,” Mr Jarvis said.

The results were better than expected, with Treasury downplaying the Australia’s job market ahead of the announcement.

Labor said they would be carefully watching the figures in anticipation of whether it had overseen the creation of a million new jobs since they took government.

On Wednesday, Jim Chalmers acknowledged the labour market was “softening around the edges,” and said it was “not immune from the weakness in the economy”.

“We’ve seen that in a host of data points, including the rise in the unemployment rate and lower average hours in recent months,” he said.

“We’re all about more people working, earning more and keeping more of what they earn and we are making good progress.”

More to come.