The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has confirmed that Australia’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.0 per cent in March, the equal lowest level since 2008.
Employment increased by 18,000 people during the month while unemployment fell by 12,000, leading to a slight decrease in the unemployment rate but not enough for it to fall below 4.0 per cent in rounded terms.
March was the fifth month in a row that employment has increased, with 1.7 per cent more people employed compared to the pre-Delta period high of June last year.
The participation rate remained at 66.4 per cent, equal to the record high set last month.
Commenting on the ABS figures, HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said that they portrayed a positive picture despite recent flooding and the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
However, he noted that the market had predicted employment would rise by 30,000 jobs, pushing unemployment down to 3.9 per cent.
“Our view has been that the rapid pace of labour market tightening observed in the second-half of 2021 would lose some momentum in 2022, as we see the reopening border boosting labour supply,” said Mr Bloxham.
“At this stage that effect is likely to be only small - the border only fully reopened from late February - but we expect the impact to build rapidly in coming months. A high minimum wage, record high job vacancies, a strong economy and comparatively good health conditions should make Australia attractive to workers from offshore.”
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis noted that the unemployment rate was still falling faster for women than for men.
“The unemployment rate for women fell from 3.8 per cent to 3.7 per cent, the lowest it has been since May 1974,” he said.
“It remained at 4.2 per cent for men, its second lowest level since November 2008 and just above the rate from December 2021 of 4.1 per cent.”
The ABS also reported a 0.6 per cent decline in seasonally adjusted hours worked.
“With floods in NSW and Queensland, a higher than usual number of people reported working reduced hours due to bad weather in March,” said Mr Jarvis.
“This was in addition to the high number of people away from work due to illness, reflecting further disruption from the Omicron variant.”
Meanwhile, the underemployment rate moved 0.2 percentage points lower to 6.3 per cent and the under-utilisation rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 10.3 per cent.
Additionally, employment for Aussies aged between 15 and 24 years increased by 36,000 last month.
“While young people were particularly impacted early in the pandemic and during the Delta period, we have continued to see strong increases in youth employment over the past year,” Mr Jarvis said.
“The youth employment-to-population ratio in March was the highest it had been since August 2008, at 64.8 per cent, and 4.6 percentage points higher than the start of the pandemic.”
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
