There was good news and bad news for the Labor government in the latest jobs data.
The jobless rate remained at 5.7 per cent in July, when economists had expected a further increase to a 10-year high of 5.8 per cent.
However, the number of people in employment in data released on Thursday unexpectedly fell by over 10,000 in July, the opposite of what economists had expected.
The economy is expected to hold centre stage during the election campaign before people go to the polls on September 7.
In its pre-election economic statement last week, the government raised its forecast for unemployment to 6.25 per cent for this financial year and next.
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This week the Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate to a fresh all-time low of 2.5 per cent, saying that the economy had been growing below trend in the past year and this was expected to continue in the near term.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the number of people in employment fell by 10,200, with full time employment falling by 6700 and part-time workers by 3500.
Among the states, the jobless rate in NSW rose to 5.6 per cent in July from 5.4 per cent in June, while it jumped to 7.1 per cent from 6.1 per cent in South Australia.
However, it eased to 5.7 per cent from 5.8 per cent in Victoria, it fell to 5.9 per cent from 6.3 per cent in Queensland and dropped to 8.2 per cent from nine per cent in Tasmania.
The rate was unchanged in Western Australia at 4.6 per cent.
In the territories, the rate eased to 3.6 per cent from 3.8 per cent in the ACT, but rose to 5.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent in the Northern Territory.
