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2025-09-18 09:56:41
[Australia's unemployment rate remains stable, supporting the central bank's cautious policy stance] Australia's unemployment rate remained stable last month - even though the economy lost jobs and the number of job seekers fell, indicating that the labor market remains tight and reinforced the Reserve Bank of Australia's cautious attitude towards policy easing. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed that the unemployment rate remained at 4.2% in August, in line with economists' expectations. The number of employed people decreased by 5,400, all due to a decrease in full-time jobs; the number of part-time jobs increased sharply by 35,500. The Australian dollar exchange rate and the yield on policy-sensitive three-year government bonds both fell. Traders expect that the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision-making committee will keep interest rates unchanged at 3.6% this month (three rate cuts have been made this year), and the fourth rate cut is more likely to be implemented in November. "The 0.4% decrease in working hours in August was mainly due to a decrease in the number of people working full-time hours this month," Sean Crick, director of labor statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said in a statement.
