Unemployment in Australia has fallen from 5.3% in August, a 10-month high, to 5.2% in September, reports the country’s ABC Newsnetwork.

The number of jobs created in September was double the expected rate, and just over half of these 20,400 new jobs were full-time positions.

ABC Newsalso notes that the changes in unemployment show regional variation; in South Australia unemployment rose 5.6% from 5% in August, while in Queensland it fell from 6.3% in August to 5.4% the next month.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard says that the news is the result of hard work paying off: “It’s not a matter of autopilot; it takes careful and continued policy work and reform … It is no accident that our economy today is a resilient economy.”

Katie Dean, head of Australian economics at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), told ABC Newsshe cautiously welcomed the good news, adding “[…] while it is a welcome reprieve, it doesn’t change the story that the labour force over the last six months has still weakened considerably from where we were six months ago.”