The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.5% in March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), despite a 53,000 person rise in employment across the country and 1,600 person drop in unemployed people.
ABS head of labour statistics Lauren Ford said the unemployment rate remains stagnant at its near 50-year low.
“In line with the increase in employment, the employment-to-population ratio increased 0.1 percentage point to 64.4%, with the participation rate remaining at 66.7%.
“Both indicators were close to their historical highs in November 2022, reflecting a tight labour market and explaining why employers are finding it hard to fill the high number of job vacancies,” Ford said.
“With consecutive months of strong growth in female employment (up 81,000 over the past two months), the female participation rate increased to a record high of 62.5%, and their employment-to-population ratio also hit a historical high of 60.4%,” Ms Ford said.
Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked fell by 0.2% in March 2023, following a 3.8% increase in February.
“Over the past 12 months, hours worked has increased 5.5%, outpacing the 3.3% increase in employment,” Ford said. “Since March 2020, hours worked have increased 8.4%, compared to a 7.0% increase in employment.
"The strength in hours worked relative to employment shows the high level of demand for labour, to some extent, is being absorbed by people working more hours.”
The seasonally adjusted underemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points to 6.2%, following the 0.3 percentage points decrease in February.
Ford said the underemployment rate continues to be low in historic terms, saying it is 2.5 percentage points lower than before the pandemic.
"This continues to be underpinned by consistently faster growth in hours worked," Ford said.
The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, rose 0.4 percentage points to 9.7%, but remained 4.2 percentage points lower than in March 2020.
Underlying trend data
Trend employment increased by 31,700 people (0.2%) in March 2023, and trend monthly hours worked increased 0.2%.
Ford said this percentage increase in trend employment was slightly higher than the monthly average increase for the 20 years before the pandemic.
"However, the latest monthly percentage increase in trend hours worked was almost twice the longer-term average, consistent with the relative strength in hours worked over the past year."
In line with the stronger increase in hours worked, most of the recent net employment growth has been in full-time employment - according to the ABS - resulting in a higher share of full-time employment than there was pre-pandemic.
"Around 68.2% of employed people were full-time workers just prior to the pandemic, with this share having generally trended down over the decades through to 2017,” Ford said. “It has now increased to 70.1% in March 2023, around where it was a decade ago.”
The trend unemployment rate remained at 3.5% for the eighth consecutive month, while the trend underemployment rate rose slightly to 6.1%.
The trend participation rate rose less than 0.1 percentage point to 66.8%, the highest rate in the trend series according to the ABS.
The trend employment to population ratio remained at 64.4% for the eight consecutive month.
“In trend terms, the elevated employment-to-population ratio and participation rate, along with the low unemployment and underemployment rates, all point to a consistently tight labour market," Ford said.