Breaking: Australia’s Unemployment Rate climbs to 4.5% in April, vs 4.3% expected

Australia’s Unemployment Rate climbed to 4.5% in April from 4.3% in March, according to the official data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday. The figure came in above the market consensus of 4.3%.

Furthermore, the Australian Employment Change arrived at -18.6K in April from a rise of 23.3K in March (revised from 17.9K), compared with the consensus forecast of 17.5K.

The participation rate in Australia decreased to 66.7% in April from 66.8% in March. Meanwhile, Full-Time Employment declined by 10.7K in the same period from a rise of 63.4K in the previous reading (revised from 52.5K). The Part-Time Employment decreased by 7.9K in April versus a fall of 40K prior (revised from -34.6K).

Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said with the key highlights noted below

Compared to what we usually see in April, more people remained unemployed this month.

A drop in female employment drove the overall fall in employment, with full-time down 19,000 people, and part-time down 13,000 people.

This is the first fall in female employment since August 2025.

Market reaction to the Australia’s employment data

The Australian Dollar (AUD) edges lower following the employment data. At the time of writing, the AUD/USD pair is trading 0.27% lower on the day to trade at 0.7131.