Australia's Unemployment Rises Six Percent

The unemployment rate in Australia is reported to have risen for about 6 percent in spite of an increase in new jobs since May. The employee participation rose about 0.1 percent over the month. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday that the unemployment rate rose to 756,100 from 12,800. In the month of June the country also witnessed a slight increase in the number of employed people. It was estimated to be around 11.769 million, which is considered better than a fall of 5,000.

South Australia is reported to have the highest unemployment rate. It increased to 8.2 percent from 7.6 percent accounting for almost 5,700 jobs lost. Victoria also faced similar kind of loss of full-time jobs while New South Wales recorded the largest increase in employment with 11,300 new jobs. The ABS reported that full-time employment rose by 17,500 incase of female employees and by 7,000 incase of male employees but part-time jobs shrunk drastically.

Gail Gago, South Australia’s employment minister, said the state was struggling with the issue of unemployment and added that the “move from a reliance on traditional manufacturing industries, coupled with collapsing commodities prices” led to this degradation of job rates, reported the Guardian.

Nigel McBride, the chief executive for Business SA, warned that unemployment had touched “alarming levels” and suggested that the “state government must make job creation its highest priority.” He also insisted that state government should provide funds for infrastructure so as to create sustainable and long term economic growth.

The Australian reported that the mining sector downturn in West Australia has resulted in the increase of the unemployment rate from 5.1 percent to 5.8 percent since May. CommSec’s Savanth Sebastian added that due to mining downturn generating new jobs was getting difficult which is considered to be of top priority at the moment.

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