The federal government's leading employment index fell for an eighth consecutive month in September, pointing to below trend jobs growth in coming months.
A previous small rise in July has been revised to a small fall, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations said in a statement on Wednesday.
"This now confirms that employment is likely to continue to grow more slowly than its long-term trend rate of 1.4 per cent per annum over coming months," it said.
The leading jobs indicator anticipates movements in the growth cycle of employment, with a turning point confirmed after six consecutive monthly moves in the same direction.
The indicator of employment fell 0.034 index points in September to minus 0.111 points.
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It has four weighted components: ANZ Newspaper Job Advertisements, Dun and Bradstreet Employment Expectations, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index of Economic Activity and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index.
Official labour force data for August will be released on Thursday.
Economists expect the number of people employed to have grown by 10,000 in August compared to June but with the jobless rate rising to 5.8 per cent from 5.7 per cent in the previous two months.
