Western Australia’s unemployment rate has risen one percentage point to 3.6 per cent in January, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Western Australia’s unemployment rate has risen one percentage point to 3.6 per cent in January, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 1 per cent from December’s figure of 3.5 per cent.
The nation’s unemployment rate increased to 3.7 per cent in January from 3.5 per cent in December.
The number of employed people across Australia dropped by about 11,000, while the number of unemployed people grew by 22,000 people, according to ABS.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said this represented the second consecutive monthly fall in seasonally adjusted employment but followed strong growth during 2022.
“While the employment to population ratio fell between December and January, down 0.2 percentage points to 64.0 per cent, it was still 0.5 percentage points higher than January 2022 and 1.6 percentage points higher than March 2020,” he said.
“Along with a larger-than-usual increase in unemployed people in January, there was also a similarly larger-than-usual rise in the number of unemployed people who had a job to go to in the future.”
Mr Jarvis said the new year was a time of change within the labour market.
"January is the most seasonal time of the year in the Australian labour market, with people leaving jobs but also getting ready to start new jobs or return from leave,” he said.
“This January, we saw more people than usual with a job indicating they were starting or returning to work later in the month.”
The seasonally adjusted participation rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 66.5 per cent in January, down from the series high of 66.8 per cent in mid-2022.
A higher than usual number of people took annual leave in January resulting in a 2.1 per cent decrease in seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked across Australia.
Mr Jarvis said early January was the seasonal peak in people taking annual leave.
“As in 2021 and 2022, January 2023 again saw more people than usual taking annual leave,” he said.
“Around 43 per cent of employed people worked reduced or no hours because they were on leave, compared with around 41 per cent of employed people over the same period before the pandemic.”
