Australia's Oct employment soars, jobless rate ticks up

[SYDNEY] Australian jobs surged past all expectations in October, though the unemployment rate still ticked up to 7.0 per cent as more people went out looking for work.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday showed employment escalated by a solid 178,800 in October, after slipping in September.

Economists polled by Reuters were predicting a fall of 30,000 with the unemployment rate rising to 7.2 per cent.

"This strong increase means that employment in October was only 1.7 per cent below March, and reflects a large flow of people from outside the labour force back into employment," Bjorn Jarvis, head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, said.

REUTERS

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