Australia's unemployment rate rises

Sydney, July 12 (IANS) Australia's unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in June, due to the loss of 27,000 jobs, data released Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed.

The ABS reported that the number of people employed decreased by 27,000 to 11,500,500 in June, reported Xinhua.

The ABS data showed that the number of full-time jobs fell by 33,500 to 8,065,500 in June while part-time jobs increased 6,600 to 3,435,000 in the month.

The number of people unemployed increased by 7,200 to 631,300 in June, the ABS reported.

The labour force participation rate was 65.2 percent in June, down 0.2 percent from May.

Economists had expected no jobs to be created in June and unemployment to rise to 5.2 percent.

The Australian dollar has dropped more than a third of a US cent after the worse-than-expected employment figures for June was released by the on Thursday.