......after a 31,900 increase in August. The jobless rate was probably unchanged at a 33-year low of 4.3 percent. The Bureau of Statistics releases the report tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. in Sydney.

Sustained jobs growth justifies the Reserve Bank's decision to raise its benchmark interest rate in August to damp inflation pressures in an economy that is growing at the fastest annual pace in three years. Miners are hiring workers as they expand to meet surging Chinese demand and retailers are opening new stores as consumer spending picks up.

``The odds favor another decent jobs number, consistent with the underlying strength of the economy,'' said Su-Lin Ong, senior economist at RBC Capital Markets in Sydney. ``We expect the unemployment rate to hold down at a three-decade low confirming the stretched nature of the labor market.''

September’s expected jobs addition would bring the number of positions created in Australia this year to more than 190,000. The economy added more than 305,000 jobs last year, the biggest annual increase since 1989.