More Australians have joined the workforce but finding a new job is harder

Australia’s unemployment rate has surprisingly fallen in July, ending a strong run for the jobs market.

Fresh figures released from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed the jobless rate came in at 4.5 per cent for the month of July, up from 4.4 per cent in June.

This followed June’s shock surge in employment, when 76,300 Australians entered the workforce.

Prior to Thursday’s figures, experts were expecting a smaller lift in employment, with around 15,000 people expected to find work, while the participation rate was expected to slide down to 66.9 per cent.

A soft jobs figure would reinforce the Reserve Bank of Australia’s view the labour market is gradually cooling, adding to the case for holding interest rates.

Thursday’s figures followed a warning from RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser who said employment growth must slow in order to get inflation back to target.

“We’re not seeing in our forecasts a reduction in the number of jobs in the economy, but it’s a lot slower than Australia has known in the past, and it’s a lot slower than recently.”

Originally published as More Australians have joined the workforce but finding a new job is harder