The unemployment rate in Australia has fallen to 3.4 per cent in July, the lowest rate since August 1974.
This is according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), who report that in July there were fewer unemployed people than job vacancies in May.
“With employment falling by 41,000 people and the number of unemployed people also decreasing by 20,000, the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points, to 3.4 per cent,” reports Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS.
“The fall in unemployment in July reflects an increasingly tight labour market, including high job vacancies and ongoing labour shortages, resulting in the lowest unemployment rate since August 1974.
The unemployment rate fell 0.2 per cent for men to 3.4 per cent, and remained steady at 3.4 per cent for women.
July saw a fall in both employment and unemployment. Due to this the participation rate also fell, down 0.3 percentage points from its record high of 66.8 per cent to 66.4 per cent.
Employment decreased by 41,000 people, the first fall in employment since October 2021, following the easing of restrictions after the Delta lockdowns in late 2021.
“During the pandemic, it has not been uncommon to see larger-than-usual changes or slowing in employment and hours around school holidays,” Jarvis said.
“In addition to people taking annual leave around the winter school holidays, there were also around 750,000 people working fewer hours than usual due to being sick in July 2022, around double the usual number we see during the middle of winter.
“Given the extent of sickness within the community during July, some people who were on annual leave over the school holidays may have also been sick or caring for others.”