Employment soared in June as 45,900 jobs were added to the labour force, ramping up pressure on the RBA to resume policy tightening despite the continued presence of economic concerns in other parts of the globe.
With strength evident throughout the work force, partly helped by a surging commodities boom, the air tight labour market is raising the spectre of full employment in the near term. Overall, 327,300 jobs have been created since August 2009, despite the impact of six interest rate hikes from the RBA over that time frame.
For June, Australia's number of employed rose 45,900 while the unemployment rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.1%, compared with a 5.1% reading in May that was revised down from an initial figure of 5.2%, the ABS said. The only slight negative in the jobs report was a small reduction in the number of hours worked, according. Aggregate monthly hours 1 worked fell 0.4% in June from May to 57bn hours.
Those in full-time work rose 18,400 to a record high of 7.79m in June, from 7.78m in May, while the number of people in part-time work rose 27,500 to 3.31m from 3.28m. The seasonally adjusted workforce participation rate, or the proportion of working-age persons at work or actively seeking work, rose to 65.2% in June from 65.1% in May.