Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in August from 4.5% in July, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.

The consensus forecast was for 4.5%, according to Trading Economics.

The total number of employed people increased by 39,500, bringing the total to 14.8 million.

"This August we recorded a higher proportion of people who were previously not in the labor force moving to being unemployed, compared to recent years," said Sean Crick, the bureau's head of labor statistics.

The participation rate rose 0.2 percentage points to over 67% compared with the previous month. The underemployment rate, which refers to the share of workers who want and are available to work additional hours, fell to 6.2% in August from 6.3% in July.

The employment-to-population ratio remained flat at nearly 64%, the report said. Monthly hours worked across all jobs increased by 14 million hours to 2 billion hours in August.