Govt measures will cut unemployment: PM

Ahead of the latest labour force figures, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government is putting in place measures to cut unemployment.

Employment advertising in a newspaper

(AAP)

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has assured people without a job his government is putting the necessary measures in place to get the unemployment rate down.

The International Monetary Fund predicts Australia's unemployment rate will remain above six per cent both this year and next - the worst performer behind the Philippines in the Asia Pacific region.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens agrees it will probably take some time before unemployment declines consistently.

Mr Abbott believes the best way to get unemployment down on a sustained basis is to cut taxes and red tape and improve the training system, while boosting both trade and infrastructure.

"These are all the measures this government is putting in place," he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

There are growing signs that employment opportunities are improving.

Job advertisements are steadily increasing and the government's own leading indicator of employment has risen for a second consecutive month in October after 10 months of decline.

However, to say there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding Thursday's September labour force figures for September would be an understatement.

In August, the number of people employed was reported to have risen by an unbelievable 121,000 with the jobless rate dropping to 6.1 per cent from a 12-year high of 6.4 per cent the previous month.

In response, economists had been expecting a jobs fall of 30,000 in September with the jobless rate ticking up again to 6.2 per cent.

But in an 11th-hour move, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has indicated there will be large revisions to Thursday's data, prompting economists to think there may now be a rise in September employment and a further tick down in the jobless rate to six per cent.

The problem lies with the statistical offset for seasonal peaks and troughs, the seasonal adjustment.

ABS now believes the seasonal pattern previously evident for July, August and September was not apparent for 2014.

These three months will be now be replaced by original figures.

Economists say it now means that employment in July probably rose by 3500 rather than falling by 4100 and August was an increase of 32,100 rather than the massive 121,000 increase.

"It is critical that the ABS produces the best set of estimates that it can," acting Australian Statistician Jonathan Palmer said in a statement.

The ABS is commissioning a review with independent external input to develop an appropriate method for seasonally adjusting October 2014 and the following months' estimates.


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