Australia records lowest unemployment rate since 2008
- Claire Lee
- Topics: Australia, Home Page - News, News, Recruitment
The unemployment rate in Australia fell to a 13-year low in February, hitting 4% on the back of a large increase in full-time roles.
The jobless rate for women fell to 3.8%, which is also its lowest since May 1974, highlighted the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The unemployment rate for men was 4.2%, a slight increase from the 4.1% registered in December.
Australia added a net 77,400 jobs in February, with full-time jobs rising by over 4,000 a day, bringing total roles added in the month to 121,900. Part-time jobs fell by 44,500.
“While hours worked rebounded in February, they were still around 0.5% below December, and also still slightly below (0.2%) the pre-Delta period high of May 2021, reflecting a second month of impacts associated with the Omicron variant,” said Bjorn Jarvis, the head of labour statistics at the ABS.
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“The number of employed people working no hours over the entire week due to illness or sick leave was around 80% higher than what we would usually see in February, having been around triple the usual level in January,” Jarvis added.
