WA unemployment up 0.6%

Western Australia's unemployment rate rose to 6.6 per cent in November despite 8,500 jobs being created, while the national unemployment rate has remained unchanged even though the economy added far more jobs than expected in November.

The national unemployment rate was steady at 5.4 per cent, official figures show, matching market expectations.

However, the total number of people with jobs rose by 61,600, the Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed, far higher than the 19,000 increase that economists had predicted.

WA"s participation rate increased by 0.8 per cent to 68.8 per cent, contributing to the overall rise in unemployment of 0.6 per cent for the month.

Full-time employment rose by 41,900 jobs while part-time positions increased by 19,700.

The Australian dollar lifted on the news, climbing to US76.68 cents by 1200 AEDT, from US76.29 cents ahead of the 1130 AEDT data release.

The ABS figures also showed that the participation rate, which refers to the number of people either employed or actively looking for work, was up 0.3 percentage points at 65.5 per cent.

Australia's jobs market has seen an acceleration in job creation over the past year on the back of a revival in business sentiment.

More than 350,000 positions have been created so far in 2017, much of them full-time jobs.

However, wages growth has remained weak, which has had an impact on consumer spending.

The quarterly, seasonally adjusted, underemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 8.3 per cent, while the rate of under-utilisation, which combines unemployed and underemployed populations, fell by 0.3 percentage points to 13.7 per cent.