Many market economists expected the jobless rate to stay at 4.1 per cent in June, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics said it jumped to 4.3 per cent - the highest level since November 2021.
However, it wasn't completely out of step with their forecast as many - including the central bank - had predicted unemployment would grow by some degree by the end of the year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has urged Australians to keep some perspective.
"Unemployment has been really quite outstandingly low for some time now - 4.3 (per cent) in historical terms would be seen as quite a good outcome," he told ABC radio on Friday.
"When it comes to this tick up in unemployment, it is modest, it is unwelcome, but it's also unsurprising."
Global uncertainty driven by conflict and the ever-changing threat of US tariffs, alongside a few years of high interest rates and cost-of-living pressures, Â combined to create the conditions for a higher jobless rate.
Following recent discussions with his counterparts in South Africa, Dr Chalmers said the best way to deal with uncertainty was with increased engagement, collaboration, bolstered supply chains and more ambitious domestic economic policy.
While other countries have been hit harder by economic headwinds, Australia is still expected to see a "soft landing" with joblessness staying relatively low and inflation generally modest.
As a result, unemployment is not expected to increase by much more, with the government's forecast sitting "somewhere in the middle fours", although there is uncertainty in that prediction, Dr Chalmers added.
However, signs of a tougher jobs market could help set the scene for lower interest rates in the months ahead.
Ex-Reserve Bank of Australia economist Luke Hartigan said the June outcome met the central bank's year-end unemployment forecast.
"This just adds information to say that some modest reduction in interest rates is warranted," the University of Sydney economics lecturer told AAP.
After its July meeting, the RBA disappointed mortgage-holders and shocked market economists by opting to hold the cash rate at 3.85 per cent in a split decision.
But the latest jobs data has been read by some as an early sign of labour market softening.
Combined with moderating inflation, the unemployment figures meant an interest rate cut was "virtually locked in" when the RBA meets in August, CreditorWatch's chief economist Ivan Colhoun said.
However, other economists believe there is still room to move, with VanEck investments head Russel Chesler pointing to the July 30 release of quarterly inflation figures as a vital data point in the Reserve Bank's next rate decision.
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