2018.12.1920:32:00UTC+00Australia Unemployment Rate Climbs To 5.1% In November

The jobless rate in Australia came in at a seasonally adjusted 5.1 percent in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That exceeded expectations for 5.0 percent, which would have been unchanged from the October reading.

The Australian economy added 37,000 jobs to 12,694,300 last month - blowing away expectations for an increase of 20,000 jobs following the gain of 32,800 in the previous month.

Full-time employment decreased 6,400 to 8,684,600 and part-time employment increased 43,400 to 4,009,600.

Unemployment increased 12,500 to 683,100. Male unemployment increased 11,500 persons and female unemployment increased 1,000 persons.

The participation rate was 65.7 percent, beating forecasts for 65.6 percent - which would have been unchanged from a month earlier.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 3.3 million hours to 1,759.5 million hours.

The monthly trend underemployment rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 8.4 percent. The monthly trend underutilization rate remained steady at 13.5 percent.

The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 8.5 percent. The monthly seasonally adjusted underutilization rate increased 0.2 pts to 13.6 percent.