Newcastle recorded its best employment figures since the start of the pandemic in July, shortly before the Hunter plunged back into lockdown.
Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates published on Thursday show the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas had a total of 192,600 people in work last month, the most since March 2020 (193,300).
The employment metric was still well short of the September 2019 peak of 205,000 but 8500 higher than in June 2021 and 20,000 higher than in June 2020.
The workforce participation rate, another key indicator of economic activity, bounced up to 65.3 per cent, another 16-month high and close to the national average.
The ABS's headline unemployment rate for the city was 4.5 per cent last month, though the bureau again flagged this as statistically unreliable due to a small sample size.
The jobless rate 12-month average, which smooths out statistical bumps in the data, was 6.3 per cent in July.
Employment figures in the rest of the Hunter region continued to be far more stable than in the two metropolitan LGAs.
Total employment in the rest of the Hunter was 129,800 in July, virtually unchanged from the month before, and the unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent.
But the participation rate outside Newcastle remains depressed at only 60.7 per cent, down five points on pre-pandemic levels.
The national unemployment rate dropped 0.3 points to 4.6 per cent in July but monthly hours worked dipped by 3 million.
Workers on COVID-19 support payments are counted as employed.
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