More Australians are in work than ever before, but unemployment still rose last month as the number of people looking for a job grew. Economists are divided over whether the strong jobs market will make it difficult for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates next month.
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00:0022-year-old Kelsey is hitting the streets, resumes in hand, hoping to finally land a
00:07job.
00:08I was just wondering if you guys are hiring at the moment?
00:10She's been looking for work as a chef since last April.
00:13It's pretty exhausting.
00:14Like, I feel very beat down by a lot of it.
00:18Just the rejection, like, constantly is, like, it's disheartening.
00:21The ones that I apply to online, I almost never hear back from them.
00:26And then when I do apply, it says, like, how many people have applied, and it's always,
00:30like, in the thousands.
00:31Like, it's so ridiculous.
00:33Kelsey isn't alone.
00:34More people decided to look for work last month, pushing the participation rate to a
00:39record high.
00:4056,300 jobs were created, but all were part-time roles.
00:45And more than 10,000 people joined the jobless queue.
00:48That all meant the unemployment rate ticked up to 4 per cent.
00:52These are remarkable numbers in an economy where growth has been particularly soft.
00:57Inflation is down, wages are up, unemployment is very low.
01:02Perhaps Mr Chalmers doesn't understand that under his economic management, we have now
01:08seen 12 interest rate rises.
01:11Some economists think relief for households could be on the way.
01:15We're still expecting to see two rate cuts in 2025, one in February and one in August.
01:22I think February might be just a bit too soon for the RBA, and I think they might actually
01:27wait until May.
01:28While economists are mixed over whether the RBA will cut interest rates next month, financial
01:33markets still believe there's about a 70 per cent chance of it.
01:37But all eyes will be on key quarterly inflation figures out in a few weeks.