Thursday December 11, 03:43 AM
Australia unemployment rises to 4.4 percent in November
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian unemployment rose to 4.4 percent in November, its highest level in a year, as the global economic slowdown took a growing toll on the nation's once-thriving economy, figures showed Thursday.
The jobless rate was up from 4.3 percent in September and October, with analysts predicting worse to come next year.
The number of employed in the economy dropped by 15,600, which was better than economists' expectations of a loss of 20,000 jobs with an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the "slight rise" in the jobless figure was good news given the depth of the global economic crisis.
"Obviously in these very difficult times, these are welcome figures," she told reporters in Melbourne.
"The global economic crisis is of course affecting the world, economies right around the world, including our own. The government has always said that Australia won't be immune from the global financial crisis and it will affect our lives here, including jobs," she said.
The jobless figures were released a day after Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) announced it was cutting 14,000 jobs worldwide -- including 5,500 employee roles and 8,500 contractors -- amid the deepening global crisis.
The government has forecast the jobless rate rising to 5.0 percent by June 2009 as the economy slows further and more jobs are shed.
But Kieran Davies, chief economist at ABN AMRO (Amsterdam: AABA.AS - news) , said the unemployment dam was about to break, rising to between 6.0 and 6.5 percent over the next year, saying it was unusual for employment to resist the economic downturn for so long.
The ABS said the seasonally-adjusted workforce participation rate, or the proportion of working-age persons at work or actively seeking work, fell to 65.1 percent in November from 65.2 percent in October.
The total number of people employed stood at 10.75 million in November in seasonally adjusted terms, compared with 10.77 million in October.
The number of people in full-time work rose 8,800 to 7.70 million in November, from 7.69 million in October, while the number of people in part-time work fell 24,400 to 3.05 million from 3.08 million, the figures showed.
Gillard said Rio Tinto's announcement of job cuts -- which will affect an unknown number of the company's 17,000 staff in Australia -- was unwelcome, but a sign of the times.
"This is certainly bad news and for any Australian facing a job loss is very, very tough news, particularly in the run-up to Christmas," she told the Fairfax Radio Network.
"We will be talking to Rio Tinto, making sure that people get their entitlements."
-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report --
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