Cutting penalty rate won't help jobs: ALP

Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor does not believe there is a correlation between employment growth and cutting the income of low paid workers by reducing penalty rates.

"This idea that employer bodies put forward ... that the best way to do anything about the unemployed is to attack employed workers is a nonsense and also unfair," Mr O'Connor told reporters after new figures showed the jobless rate increased to 5.8 per cent in June.

The Fair Work Commission is reviewing weekend penalty rates after the Productivity Commission recommended the Sunday rate be cut to the same level as Saturday.