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Australia's unemployment rate has risen for the first time in 10 months to 3.5 per cent in August, up from 3.4 percent the month before. 

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that in August 2022, an estimated 33,500 jobs were added to the economy.

The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 per cent because of an increase in the number of people looking for work.

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Lauren Ford, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said the figures reflected changing patterns in employment and working hours seen during the pandemic. 

"With employment increasing by 33,000 people and unemployment by 14,000, the unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 3.5 per cent in August, returning to the same rate as June," she said. 

The participation rate also rose to 66.6 per cent last month, which is just below the record high set in June and 0.7 percentage points higher than before the pandemic. 

Hours worked also bounced back by 0.8 per cent in August due to the absence of school holidays.

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"The August rise in employment and hours occurred after the winter school holidays and flooding events in New South Wales, where we saw more people than usual working fewer hours in July," said Ford.

"COVID-19 and other illness related worker absences continued to be reflected in hours worked in August.

"The number of people working reduced hours due to being sick remained elevated in August, at around 760,000 people. This is around double the number we typically see at the end of winter."

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