SYDNEY - Australia's jobless rate fell unexpectedly for the first time in five months in September, prompting the government to claim Thursday its economic stimulus measures were working. Unemployment now stands at 5.7 percent, down from 5.8 percent in August, after figures showed the number of people with jobs jumped 40,600, while full-time employment rose by 35,400. The news sparked speculation that unemployment had reached its global economic crisis peak and bolstered analysts' expectations of more interest rate rises this year. But Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib urged caution, saying that the figures reflected only one month's performance and emphasised the economy remained very fragile. "The stimulus is working but again there's still a long way to go in the global recession," he told reporters in Melbourne. "There's still a great deal of uncertainty about what is happening in the United States, in Europe and in China and for those reasons the stimulus must be kept in place," he said. Arbib also warned that 18,000 jobs had to be created every month for the figures to stay even. But the numbers far outstripped economists' expectations. Analysts had forecast a 10,000 decline in employment with the unemployment rate rising to 6.0 percent. "It's a phenomenal result," Commonwealth Securities economist Savanth Sebastian told Sky News after the data release. The surge in employment came two days after Australia became the first advanced economy to raise interest rates since the global financial crisis and promised more rises to come. The central bank raised the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent, up from a 49-year low after an aggressive round of cuts credited with helping fight off the worst global downturn since the Great Depression.
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