Employers in Australia hired new workers in October. This will be the eighth month that more companies hired additional people to boost their work force.

The statistics bureau today said there were 29,700 who got employed in September, while economists downplayed the jobless rate, which rose by 3 basis points to 5.4 percent.

Analysts said the availability of jobs in the economy has encouraged workers to take part-time jobs, the statistics bureau data indicated a surge in part-time employment, with an extra 43,800 part-time jobs, those taking full-time employment is at 14,100.

Employment growth is still very strong at around 3 per cent and it has held above that level for a number of months now," JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans told Reuters.

"That's pointing to a pretty tight labour market, even though we did have that big rise in the unemployment rate last month."

Demand for workers in Australia has risen as local firms such as BG Group Plc and other mining firms increased their shipments to China and other Asian countries.

The robust Australian economy prompted the central bank to increase its benchmark interest rates by a quarter percentage point to 4.75 percent.

Governor Glenn Stevens noted that the economy has "relatively modest amounts of spare capacity" and citing the risk of higher inflation.