{"id":780814,"date":"2026-09-24T07:26:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780814\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T07:26:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:26:58","slug":"australians-scrambling-for-second-jobs-to-deal-with-rising-mortgage-repayments-and-cost-of-living-australian-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780814\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians \u2018scrambling\u2019 for second jobs to deal with rising mortgage repayments and cost of living | Australian economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians are \u201cscrambling\u201d to find more work to cover soaring living expenses<\/a> and prepare for higher mortgage costs, economists say, after new data showed unemployment ticked up to it\u2019s highest rate since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The key jobless figure lifted to 4.6% in August, from 4.5% the month before, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n

Analysts had predicted unemployment to remain steady, but said the unexpected increase would not be enough to stop the Reserve Bank from hitting mortgage holders with a fourth interest rate hike next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jobless rate keeps climbing<\/a><\/p>\n

If raised \u2013 as is widely expected \u2013 the RBA\u2019s cash rate will go from 4.35% to 4.6% \u2013 its highest in nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n

Central bank officials over recent days and weeks have repeatedly warned that inflation, at 3.5%, remains too high and does not appear to be tracking lower, as hoped.<\/p>\n

As higher fuel costs threaten to add to price pressures amid the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, experts and the financial markets are predicting a good chance the central bank could hike again on Melbourne Cup day.<\/p>\n

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Details in the labour force data showed the number of employed people jumped by 39,000 last month, but that this reflected a surge in part-time employment, offset by a 6,000-person drop in full-time work.<\/p>\n

The lift in the unemployment rate, despite the rise in employment, reflected an influx of new people looking for work, analysts said.<\/p>\n

KPMG\u2019s chief economist, Brendan Rynne, said the numbers reaffirmed that the economy is weak and growing weaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouseholds are still feeling the pinch<\/a> of higher inflation and anticipatory higher mortgage rates which can be seen through a rise in the participation rate to just below all-time peak level of 67.2%,\u201d Rynne said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis suggests households are scrambling to find more income to help cover their rising day-to-day expenses and future increases in mortgage payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, ABS figures showed the number of Australians working more than one job had passed 1 million for the first time.<\/p>\n

Scrambling to make ends meet<\/a><\/p>\n

The share of employed people working more than one job pushed to an all-time high of 6.9%, or about 1 percentage point higher than before the start of the new inflationary era from 2022.<\/p>\n

Ryan Wells, a Westpac economist, said \u201cwhile a softer economy and sub-par employment growth would typically discourage some individuals in their search for work, cost-of-living pressures and interest rate rises are acting as a counterweight, encouraging more people into the labour market\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are \u201cscrambling\u201d to find more work to cover soaring living expenses and prepare for higher mortgage costs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}