Latest labour data highlights WA volatility

Western Australia has recorded the largest decrease in jobs for July, just a month after it was the only state or territory in Australia to experience an increase in employment.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the unemployment rate rose from 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent for July, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This equates to a loss of 4,200 jobs, the largest figure in the country.

Those looking for full-time work were the worst affected, with the full-time unemployment rate rising from 5.8 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

Conversely to WA’s weak figures, the national unemployment rate was steady at 5.2 per cent.

In NSW, the unemployment rate is now sitting at just 4.4 per cent, and in Victoria it is 4.8 per cent.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said the Reserve Bank of Australia did not expect much improvement in the national jobless rate over the remainder of 2019.

“So, it will take falls in the jobless rate to prompt the RBA to back off rate cuts,” he said.

In June, the unemployment rate in WA bucked the national trend and fell 0.5 percentage points to 5.7 per cent on the back of a 13,800 increase in the total number of people holding a job.

WA was the only state or territory in Australia to report a lift in worker numbers in June, according to the ABS.

In May, the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.2 per cent.