By James Glynn
SYDNEY--Lockdowns across Australia's two biggest states helped drive the loss of 138,000 jobs in September, pushing the number of hours worked across the economy back down below pre-pandemic levels.
With a combined share of close to 60% of Australia's employed population, labor-market changes in New South Wales and Victoria continued to have a large influence on national figures, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
Employment in Victoria fell by 123,000, while New South Wales shed 25,000 jobs. Still, there were some offsets, with Queensland adding 31,000 jobs, the ABS said.
Lockdowns began midyear and were extended throughout the third quarter.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in September from 4.5% in August, with the extent of the rise limited by a fall in the number of people actively seeking a job, the ABS said.
The participation rate fell 0.7 percentage point to 64.5%. This was the third consecutive monthly decline from the near historic high of 66.2% in June, prior to an outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta variant.
The fall in the national participation rate was again underpinned by large drops in parts of the country with lockdowns in effect.
The participation rates for Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory both fell by 1.9 percentage points, and in New South Wales by a further 0.6 percentage point after a 2.5-percentage-point drop in August, the ABS said.
Over the past three months, participation in the labor force has fallen by over 330,000 people, with employment falling by 281,000 people and unemployment falling by 53,000 people, the ABS said.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this week said the economy was likely to contract by 3% or more in the third quarter from the second quarter, but added that with rising national vaccination rates and reductions in movement restrictions in key places like Sydney, the economy should regather momentum in 2022.
Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com
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