Unemployment rate hits five-year high | The Business | ABC NEWS
Australia’s unemployment rate remained at 4.7 per cent in September, after August’s jobless rate was revised upwards. It’s now at a five-year high. There were 39,300 fewer people were employed. The number of unemployed rose by 8,900. The proportion of people in work or seeking work, was around 67 per cent.
NAB chief economist Sally Auld expects the unemployment rate to rise: “We see it heading towards 5% and we think it’ll probably get there maybe some time towards the end of 2027. But I think in light of today’s data, maybe the risk to our forecast is that we actually hit that 5% level possibly a bit sooner than we currently anticipate.”
Blair Chapman is the chief economist at job ads website Seek. He says while the number of people looking for work slightly eased in September, data from job ads website Seek shows there’s been a slight lift in people looking for jobs.
“It’s potentially just a bit of catch up reflecting that there was not much hiring, especially in the consumer space over the last three to four months.”
Four interest rate rises this year are already starting to weigh on the economy.
Markets now think there’s a greater case for the Reserve Bank to leave rates on hold at its next meeting.
Sally Auld says: “Our view at NAB is that the RBA are likely done for the cycle. So, we think with a cash rate of 4.6 per cent, monetary policy is in restrictive territory, so it’s exerting a genuine headwind on the economy, and so we don’t have any more rate hikes in our forecast. Having said that, I think it’s probably fair just to articulate that if rates are going to move in any direction we think in the next three to four months, it is still more likely to be up rather than down.”
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