Jobless rate 5.1% in August

AAP

AUSTRALIA'S unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted 5.1 per cent in August, compared with an unrevised 5.3 per cent in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Thursday.

Total employment rose by 30,900 to 11.272 million in the month, seasonally adjusted.

Full-time employment rose by 53,100 to 7.9204 million in August and part-time employment was down by 22,100 to 3.352 million.

The participation rate in August was 65.4 per cent, down from an unrevised 65.5 per cent in July.

The forecast was for total employment to have risen by 30,000 in August, an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent and a participation rate of 65.6 per cent, the median of 11 economists surveyed by AAP showed.