Australia’s unemployment rate in June as a seasonally adjusted 4.2 percent, down from 4.3 percent in May and falling back to a three decade low, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The market consensus forecast was for the unemployment to remain steady at 4.3 percent.

The Australian dollar rose and bond futures eased as the job data was seen as adding to the risk of another interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

The ABS said the number of people employed rose by 29,800 in June to 10.72 million, much more than an market consensus forecast rise of 10,000.

The bureau said full-time employment increased by 24,000 to 7.66 million, while part-time employment rose by 5,800 to 3.05 million.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 2,800 to 473,800, the ABS said.

The number of people looking for full-time work decreased by 300 to 317,100, while those looking for part-time work decreased by 2,600 to 156,700.

The workforce participation rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 65.3 percent.

The Australian dollar added half a U.S. cent to around 96.05 U.S. cents.

Commowealth Bank of Australia senior economist Michael Workman said the June job data offset a “very high degree of pessimism that is prevailing”.

“It’s one of those things you would put on the ledger that would indicate that rates need to go up again but I would imagine the next few meetings (of the RBA) would be a fairly close call and the next big issue is the CPI (inflation) figures,” Workman said.

Second quarter CPI data will be released on July 23, a head of the RBA’s next policy meeting on Aug. 5.

The following table shows seasonally-adjusted figures for June compared with May:

Jobless rate - 4.2 percent vs 4.3 percent

Employed - 10.715 million vs 10.686 million

Unemployed - 473,800 vs 476,600

Participation rate - 65.3 vs 65.2 percent

Source: http://www.afxnews.com

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