Strong migration and a sluggish economy mean it's going to become harder for Australians to find jobs.
Australia's unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at its 12-year high of 6.3 per cent when official jobs figures for December are released later this week.
The economy is expected to have added 5,000 jobs, according to an AAP survey of 13 economists.
But the number of jobs being created is not enough to keep up with demand, meaning more pain for job seekers in 2015 as unemployment ticks higher, economists say.
JP Morgan expects 10,000 jobs to have been added in December but economist Ben Jarman says that still isn't enough to stem a rise in unemployment this year.
"With strong migration, the working age population is growing by 1.8 per cent per year and employment is only growing at about one per cent so, even with what looks like an ok pace of jobs growth, it's not enough to tread water," Mr Jarman said.
Given that economic growth is not expected to return to trend until 2016, the unemployment rate will depend greatly on the participation rate - the number of people that have a job, are looking for work or are ready to start work, Mr Jarman said.
The participation rate is expected to hold steady at 64.7 per cent in December.
But if it rises, that could suggest households are under cash flow pressure, Mr Jarman said.
And if unemployment rises above 6.5 per cent, the Reserve Bank may need to start cutting rates again, he said.
"The RBA have been pretty clear that the unemployment rate is very important for them," Mr Jarman said.
"It gives them their best high frequency read on how much slack there is in the economy and if it's going up, and going up more than they thought, then there's more downside risk to inflation than they thought."
National Australia Bank expects unemployment to peak at 6.75 per cent this year, forcing another two rate cuts from the RBA.
That's because economic growth this year will mostly be driven by iron ore and LNG export volumes while non-mining sectors remain in the doldrums due to sluggish confidence, NAB senior economist David de Garis said.
The high Australian dollar had also made it hard for domestic industries to compete with imports, although this was changing as the exchange rate continued to fall, he said.
"Lower energy prices are helping to lower the costs of domestic companies, the lower exchange rate is helping, along with lower interest rates, but it takes time for those effects to come through," Mr de Garis said.
"But a lot of companies are focusing on maintaining the strength of their balance sheets rather than expansion right now."
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release December labour force figures at 1130 AEDT on Thursday.
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