Australian employment rose moderately in December as full-time jobs increased for a third straight month, though the unemployment rate still ticked up to its highest since June as more people went looking for work.
Thursday's data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed employment rose a net 13,500 in December, just topping forecasts of 10,000 and a third month of gains.
The unemployment rate edged up a tenth of a percentage point to 5.8 percent, though that remains within the tight range that has held for the past year.
One bright spot was that full-time jobs rose another 9,300 on top of November's hefty 38,400 jump, bringing gains made since September to a healthy 95,000.
That went some way to reversing a shift to part-time work that bedevilled the labour market for much of last year.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has highlighted uncertainty over the labour market as a key concern for 2017. A slowdown in hiring might just be one of the few developments alarming enough to justify another cut in interest rates.
So far, futures markets have all but priced out the chance of another easing and instead imply a one-in-three chance rates might be hiked at the end of the year.
Leading indicators of labour demand are generally positive.
The government's measure of job vacancies has been on the rise, hitting the highest since mid-2001 in the three months to November. Vacancies were up almost 9 percent on a year earlier at 182,000, with even the mining sector showing signs of life.
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