When rounding to the first decimal place is not taken into account, July's unemployment rate was 3.38% while August's was 3.46% in seasonally adjusted terms.

August's labour force figures were highlighted by 33,000 more employed through the month, and 14,000 more finding themselves unemployed.

The ABS revealed the unemployment rate rose to 3.5% for men and remained steady for women at 3.4% in rounded terms.

Further, the participation rate also rose to 66.6% consistent with the increase in employment and unemployment, while the employment to population ratio increased to 64.3%.

The underutilisation rate - the rate of under and unemployed people - remained consistent with July at 9.4%, with a 0.1 percentage point fall in the underemployment rate.

Underemployment means people who are employed but aren't working as many hours as they are seeking.

Aussies are also working longer hours, with ABS data revealing an increase of 0.8% in August 2022, reversing the drop seen last month. 

With unemployment remaining at historic lows, forecasts across the major banks were relatively consistent with Westpac economists anticipating the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 3.4%, while ANZ economists forecast a minor drop of 0.1% to reach 3.3%. 

ANZ economists anticipate that the strength in the labour market, coupled with ANZ Job Ads rising, points to another 50 basis point increase to the Reserve Bank cash rate in October.

Record number of Aussies working multiple jobs to ease cost of living

ABS data further revealed 900,000 Aussies are holding multiple jobs in the June 2022 quarter, marking a growth of 4.3%.

Lauren Ford, Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said the figure of 900,000 accounts for 6.5% of all employed people.

"This is the highest rate since the quarterly series commenced in 1994, and about 0.5 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level," Ms Ford said. 

“Along with the 4.3% increase in the number of multiple job holders, the number of jobs worked as secondary jobs also increased, by 5.5%, and passed one million for the first time.

"This highlights that some people work more than two jobs at the same time.”

ABS revealed the largest increase in the number of multiple job holders was in the industries of arts and recreation services, up 16.3%, and information media and telecommunication, up 11.8%.


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