Australia’s jobless rate held at 4.3% in March, as employers shifted towards full-time positions and pushed up hours worked despite a slide in part-time jobs
Australia’s unemployment rate held at 4.3% in March, as rising full-time employment more than offset a fall in part-time jobs, according to the latest labour force figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said the number of people in work rose by 18,000 over the month, while the number of unemployed people fell by 4,000.
“The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3 per cent, whilst the participation rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 66.8 per cent,” Crick said.
The overall gain in employment was driven entirely by full-time positions. Full-time employment jumped by 52,500 people to 10,174,400, while part-time employment fell by 34,600 to 4,593,300.
Full-time employment increased for both men and women, rising by 29,000 for males and 24,000 for females. At the same time, the number of men working part-time fell by 19,000 and the number of women working part-time dropped by 16,000.
In trend terms, total employment rose to 14,762,800 people in March, with the employment-to-population ratio holding at 64%.
More hours worked despite fewer part-time workers
Total monthly hours worked increased by 0.5% in March, rising by 9.2 million hours to reach 2,016 million on a seasonally adjusted basis.
“This month people worked 9.2 million more hours, with full-time hours increasing by 7.1 million and part-time hours increasing by 2.1 million hours,” Crick said.
Full-time hours worked rose 0.4%, supported by the 0.5% increase in the number of people employed full-time. Part-time hours worked rose 0.6%, despite the 0.7% fall in part-time employment.
“This meant that on average, a person working part-time worked 1.4 per cent more hours in March than they did in February,” Crick said.
In trend terms, both employment and hours worked grew by 0.2% in March. Over the year, hours worked grew by 2.0%, outpacing the 1.4% annual growth in employment.
The underemployment rate – which captures people who are employed but want and are available for more hours – remained at 5.9% in both trend and seasonally adjusted terms.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the figures were similar, with unemployment steady at 4.3%, participation at 66.8%, and the employment-to-population ratio at 64%, alongside the rise in hours worked to 2,016 million.
