* August employment rises by 17,400 vs 5,000 forecast
* Jobless rate dips to 6.2 pct as expected
* Aussie dollar lifts from session low
By Ian Chua
SYDNEY, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The Australian economy created slightly more jobs than expected in August while the jobless rate edged lower as expected, helping take some pressure off the downbeat local dollar.
Employment rose by 17,400 in August, well ahead of the median economists' forecast for a rise of 5,000, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.
Crucially, most of the increase came from full-time positions, which climbed 11,500.
The unemployment rate edged down to 6.2 percent as expected, off a 13-year high of 6.3 percent in July.
"The jobless rate appears to be peaking, and not too far above the perceived natural rate of unemployment near 5.5 percent," said Craig James, chief economist at CommSec.
"Australia is clearly on the right track. More jobs are being created and forward-looking indicators like job advertisements suggest that job creation will continue."
The better-than-expected data helped lift the Australian dollar towards 70 U.S. cents AUD=D4 , from a session low of $0.6947.
It earlier fell in sympathy with its New Zealand peer after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut interest rates and kept the door open to more easing.
Sentiment for the Aussie was also weighed by media reports suggesting the August unemployment rate could have jumped to 6.5 percent, partly because of the government's recent move to tighten requirements for receiving unemployment benefits.
The worry was that this could have forced more respondents in the ABS labour force survey to identify as actively seeking work, pushing up the participation rate and in turn the unemployment rate.
Instead, Thursday's data showed the participation rate edged down to 65.0 percent, from 65.1 percent.
The employment-to-population ratio, which expresses the number of employed persons as a percentage of the population aged 15 years and over, held steady at 61.0 percent in August.
"Overall, today's August labour market update was more robust than expected," said Annette Beacher, chief economist at TDSecurities.
"This report is consistent with recent Reserve Bank of Australia rhetoric. Subsequently, today's report contains next to no implications for monetary policy or rates."