Australia's unemployment rate rises

Australia's unemployment rate rose to about 4.7 percent in September. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its employment report on Thursday.

According to ABS head of labor statistics Sean Crick, the number of employed people fell by nearly 39,000 during the month, while the number of unemployed rose by about 9,000. The employment-to-population ratio fell by about 0.3 percentage points to 63.6 percent.

The labor force participation rate fell from about 67.1 percent in August to 66.8 percent. The underemployment rate, which reflects those not getting sufficient working hours, rose by about 0.1 percentage points to 6.3 percent.

Crick said total hours worked by part-time workers fell by about 1.5 percent, while hours for full-time workers rose by about 0.4 percent. The Bureau recommends looking at trend data to understand the real movement of the labor market.