Unemployment in South Australia fell by 0.1 percentage points in June to 3.9 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis; the same rate as Queensland and New South Wales.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the Northern Territory recorded the highest rate of employment in the country at 4.6 per cent in June.

Nationally, unemployment rose by less than 0.1 percentage points to 4.1 per cent, with 500,000 more people employed.

South Australian underemployment also fell by 0.3 percentage points on a seasonally adjusted basis to 7.1 per cent – equal to Queensland but slightly less than Tasmania’s rate of 7.4 per cent.

ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the number of unemployed in Australia grew by 10,000 people in June.

“With employment rising by around 50,000 people and the number of unemployed growing by 10,000 people, the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1 per cent, and the participation rate rose to 66.9 per cent,” Jarvis said.

“The participation rate in June was only 0.1 percentage point lower than the historical high of 67.0 per cent in November 2023. The employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.1 percentage point to 64.2 per cent, which was also close to its historical high of 64.4 per cent in November 2023.

“The employment-to-population ratio and participation rate both continue to be near their 2023 highs. This, along with the continued high level of job vacancies, suggests the labour market remains relatively tight, despite the unemployment rate being above 4.0 per cent since April.”

Seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked rose by 0.8 per cent in June – broadly in line with employment.

“In June, we continued to see more people than usual working reduced hours because they were sick, similar to what we saw in May,” Jarvis said.

“Around 4.5 per cent of employed people in June could not work their usual hours because they were sick, compared to the pre-pandemic average for June of 3.6 per cent.

“However, we also saw less people taking annual leave in June 2024. There were around 12.5 per cent of people working fewer hours because they were on leave, compared with the pre-pandemic average for June of 14.5 per cent. This contributed to the increase in hours worked this month.”

Jarvis added that employment growth was keeping pace with population growth.

“Since April 2024, the monthly growth in employment has been 0.3 per cent, above the 20-year pre-pandemic average of 0.2 per cent. In general, the employment growth has kept up with the fast growth in population,” he said.

“In trend terms, all indicators still point to a tight labour market, although it is less tight than in early 2023.”