Unemployment in Australia remains low

Unemployment in Australia crept up to 4.4% in November 2008, but remains low in comparison with other markets.

While the figure represented a one year high and more than 15,000 job cuts, it was only a fractional 0.1% above the 4.3% recorded in October 2008 and little higher than the 33 year low of 4% recorded earlier in the year.

Compared to the United States and UK, domestic employment also continues to fare well. Unemployment has already reached 6.7% and 5.7% in the US and the UK respectively.

The government has forecast the jobless rate to rise to 5% by June 2009.