Businesses are still hiring employees but not enough to stop the unemployment rate from rising slightly.
Economists expect the August employment numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday to show growth in total employment numbers but not at a rate that absorbs the number of new entrants coming in to the labour market.
An AAP survey this week of 16 economists showed a median forecast for an unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent in August, up from 5.2 per cent the previous month.
Total employment was expected to rise by 5,000 for the month and the participation rate to be steady at 65.2 per cent.