Nationally, the Bureau of Statistics said unemployment fell by 0.1 percentage points to 4.5 per cent last month despite a 146,000 drop in the number of people in work. It is the lowest jobless rate since November 2008.

Nationally, there were more than 620,000 people working zero hours for economic or related reasons last month, an increase of almost 233,000 on July. This does not include people on annual leave.

Chief Australia economist with BIS Oxford Economics, Sarah Hunter, said the September jobs report would show a further slip in employment as the full impact of lockdowns in Victoria and the ACT became apparent.

“Broadly speaking, Victoria is likely to follow NSW and record a sharp fall in employment and the participation rate, potentially a decline in the number of people classified as unemployed, and a drop in hours worked back to levels last seen in August-September 2020,” she said.

“Despite the lockdown only impacting the lower east coast states and territories, the degree of dislocation in economic activity means that GDP is likely to fall by around 4 per cent in the September quarter.”

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KPMG senior economist Jodie Patron said lockdowns could continue to have a significant impact on the national jobs market.

“Until the economy can more fully open, employment, participation in the labour market and underemployment figures will continue to record ups and downs across all the states and territories,” she said.

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