(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Australia's May unemployment rate fell from six-point-one per cent to six per cent.
But some economists remain convinced that will rise, just as a number of big employers announce plans to slash jobs.
Ricardo Goncalves reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
At six per cent, the government's Christopher Pyne knows the jobless rate was good.
"We've had 111,000 new jobs since the beginning of this year, but there is still 745,000 Australians who are unemployed and we are working as a government to make sure they have the full opportunity to be in work."
But there will be more people unemployed with energy giant Alinta shutting down its Port Augusta power station.
400 jobs will be lost.
Hundreds more will go, with Woolworths closing its Hume distribution centre in Melbourne's northern suburb of Broadmeadows.
Westpac economist Justin Smirk believes unemployment could rise to six and a half per cent this year.
"The momentum in the economy has been slowing through this year, employers while they're employing they're not employing at a great rate, we're seeing a large rise in part time employment."
In fact, there were 27,300 part time roles filled - more than the 14,700 full time jobs created.
Justin Smirk says the Reserve Bank will be looking at these figures closely.
"Given what we think of the labour market and the labour market is not performing as robustly as it should be, trying to drive that unemployment rate down to a better level, i'd still highly there are risks to rates to the downside."
A report from recruitment company Hays revealed only 36 per cent of the 2,600 organisations it surveyed expected to increase their permanent staff levels in the year ahead.
But of those who do, Hays Senior Regional Director Adam Shapley says 46 per cent of employers expect to increase positions in the project management area.
He says this will be followed by IT, operational management, marketing, sales and human resources.
"We're continuing to see a demand for upskilled professionals who can help organisations with how technologies can impact their business"
The challenge is getting the experience needed, which these roles demand.
