Tasmanian employment drops by 2100, ABS finds

That is according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force figures.

The ABS estimated the number of employed Tasmanians decreased to 261,000, which remained near all-time highs.

It estimated female employment fell by 1600 to 123,600 people and male employment fell by 500 to 137,400.

The unemployment rate increased from 4.8 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

The good news was in full-time work.

The number of full-time workers actually increased by an estimated 900, meaning about 3000 people would have left part-time work.

That took full-time employment to 165,700, its highest since 2008.

All of the full-time gains involved women.

Females employed full-time increased by 900, while male full-time employment decreased by 100.

Tasmanian Labor Senator Carol Brown said the figures showed the flow-on impact for the state of the Morrison Government's "failures on quarantine and the vaccine rollout".

It is possible the labour force numbers will continue to worsen, at least until the lead-up to December 15, when Tasmania is due to open its borders to vaccinated visitors.

Separate ABS figures released on Wednesday suggested payroll jobs in Tasmania decreased by 0.4 per cent in two two weeks to October 16 and by 0.6 per cent in the four weeks after September 18.

Nationally, seasonally adjusted employment fell by 46,000 people, according to the labour force figures.

The unemployment rate increased from 4.6 per cent to 5.2 per cent as more people started looking for work.

"The increases in unemployment show that people were preparing to get back to work and increasingly available and actively looking for work, particularly in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory," ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

"This follows what we have seen towards the end of other major lockdowns, including the one in Victoria late last year."