Australia’s unemployment rate remained at 4.3% in March as full-time employment rebounded, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said today.
The unemployment rate matched Westpac estimates. The total number of employed Australians climbed to 14,762,800 during the month.
“The number of employed people rose by 18,000 and the number of unemployed people fell by 4,000 in March,” said ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick. Westpac analysts had projected an increase of 20,000 employed people.
The participation rate was unchanged from February at 66.8%. The underemployment rate was also stable at 5.9%.
“Growth in employment was driven by full-time workers, which rose by 53,000 people in March. This was partly offset by a fall in part-time employment of 35,000 people,” said Crick.
Full-time employment rose by 29,000 people among men and by 24,000 among women, the ABS said. In February, overall full-time employment fell by 30,000.
March’s drop in part-time employment follows a surge of 79,000 people in February, particularly driven by workers aged 65 and over.
Hours worked rose by 0.5% in March, representing 9.2 million additional hours. Full-time hours were up 7.1 million due to the rise in full-time employment.
Part-time hours increased by 6% or 2.1 million, significantly outpacing the 0.7% decline in part-time employment. According to Crick, part-time employees worked 1.4% more hours in March than in February on average.
