Australia Jobless Rate Highest Since 2021

(RTTNews) - Australia's unemployment rate rose to the highest since 2021 in April, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent in April from 4.3 percent in March. This was the highest since November 2021, when the rate was 4.6 percent.

The number of unemployed increased by 33,000 to 692,500 in April and employment decreased by 18,600 to 14.74 million.

"Compared to what we usually see in April, more people remained unemployed this month," ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

Despite the decrease in employment in April, hours worked increased 15.8 million hours.

The labor force participation rate edged down to 66.7 percent in April from 66.8 percent in the previous month.