2017.08.1622:30:00UTC+00Australia Jobless Rate Unchanged At 5.6%

The jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the June reading.

The Australian economy added 27,900 jobs to 12,201,400 in July - beating expectations for an increase of 20,000 following the addition of 14,000 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time employment decreased 20,300 to 8,342,300 and part-time employment increased 48,200 to 3,859,100.

Unemployment increased 1,100 to 730,600. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 3,800 to 496,400 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 4,900 to 234,200.

The participation rate ticked up to 65.1 percent - exceeding expectations for 65.0 percent, which would have been unchanged.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 14.4 million hours (0.8 percent) to 1,690.4 million hours.

Over the past year, the three states and territories with the strongest growth in employment were Tasmania (4.0 percent), Victoria (3.1 percent) and Queensland (2.7 percent).