Unemployment steady despite drop in full-time workers

Australia's unemployment rate has stayed steady despite more than 40,000 people falling out of full-time work.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released this morning showed the jobless rate remained at 4.2 per cent in August.

That came despite 41,000 full-time workers losing their jobs last month, a fall that was offset by a rise in part-time employment of 36,000 people.

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"Employment fell by 5000 people and the number of unemployed fell by 1000 people in August," ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

"This meant that the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2 per cent whilst the participation rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 66.8 per cent."

The steady jobs data comes less than two weeks before the Reserve Bank's next meeting on interest rates.

However, the result, which was right in line with economists' predictions, is unlikely to do much to boost the case for what would be a fourth cash rate cut this year.

Such a move is considered highly unlikely, with the market only pricing in a 14 per cent chance of a cut on September 30.

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