However, there were more women looking for work in September with the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for women rising to 3.6 per cent while for men it remained steady at 3.5 per cent.
The participation rate remained steady at 66.6 per cent, in seasonally adjusted terms, consistent with the relatively small changes in employment and unemployment.
The participation rate fell slightly for women, down 0.1 percentage point to 62.3 per cent and remained steady for men at 71.0 per cent.
Seasonally adjusted employment increased by 1,000 people (0.01 per cent) in September 2022, which was less than the percentage increase in the population aged 15 and over (0.08 per cent). As a result, the employment-to-population ratio decreased slightly, to 64.2 per cent, but remained 1.8 percentage points higher than before the pandemic.
“It is important to remember that the 1,000 employed people is a net figure — the difference between two large numbers. While employment growth has slowed in recent months, there are still close to half a million people entering employment each month, and around the same number leaving employment each month,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In line with the relatively small net change in employment, seasonally adjusted hours worked decreased by 0.6 million hours in September, less than 0.1 per cent.
“Some of the slowing in hours worked reflected a higher than usual number of people taking annual leave in September. This follows the past two Septembers when there were lower than usual numbers of people taking leave, given COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions,” Mr Jarvis said.
“The number of people working fewer hours because they were sick was also higher than we usually see in September, but only around 14 per cent higher. It is no longer around two to three times higher, as it was earlier in 2022.”
The underemployment rate remained at 6.0 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.
The under-utilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, increased 0.1 percentage point to 9.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.
