The trend unemployment rate decreased to 5.3 per cent in the month of July, reaching the lowest rate since November 2012. 

In comparison, trend employment increased around 27,000 persons in July 2018, which included over 18,000 increase of full-time employment, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 

“Over the year to July, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points. This continues the gradual decrease in the trend unemployment rate from late 2014 and it’s the lowest it has been since 2012,” Chief Economist for the ABS, Bruce Hockman said. 

The seasonally adjusted data revealed that the number of employed persons decreased by around 4,000 persons in July 2018. 

However, this led the unemployment rate to go down to 5.3 per cent as well, due to the declining participation rate of 65.5 per cent. 

“Employment is down slightly and the participation rate is declining, but we should remember that employment rose by 58,200 people last month and the trend is headed in a positive direction,” Employment economist Callam Pickering said. 

Over the past year, trend employment increased by 2.4 per cent, making up around 300,000 persons.

This was above the average figure of 2.0 per cent for year-on-year growth over the past 20 years, except for Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. 

States such as Northern Territory with 3.5 per cent, New South Wales with 3.2 per cent, and Victoria with 2.5 per cent saw the strongest annual growth in the year-on-year trend employment. 

“There’s every chance the unemployment rate will get down to five per cent fairly soon,” Capital Economics Chief Economics Paul Dales said.