Unemployment rate 5.8 per cent in November

The unemployment rate is 5.8 per cent in November. Source: ThinkStock

Unemployment in October was unchanged at 5.7 per cent.

The total number of people with jobs rose 21,000 to 11.660 million in the month, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. The median forecast for the unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in November, with total employment growth of 10,000, according to an AAP survey of 13 market economists.

Full-time employment rose 15,500 to 8.108 million in November and part-time employment was up 5,500 to 3.552 million.

The participation rate was steady at 64.8 per cent.

The participation rate is the proportion of the population that have a job, are looking for work or are ready to start work.

Employed people in Australia worked a total of 1.634 billion hours in November, the seasonally adjusted ABS figures showed. That was down by 11.7 million hours or 0.7 per cent from the 1.646 billion hours worked in October.

But it was up by 5.8 million hours or 0.4 per cent from the 1.629 billion hours worked in November 2012.

The average amount of time worked per employee fell to 140 hours and 10 minutes in November, from 141 hours and 26 minutes in October, a fall of 75 minutes or 1.0 per cent.

Compared with November last year, the average time worked per employee fell by 34 minutes or 0.4 per cent.