The number of employed women rose by 69,000, while the number of employed men increased by 46,000.
The Fair Wage Commission (FWC) has raised the minimum wage and related award minimum wages by 2.5%.
In place of higher wages, companies are instead offering one-off bonuses and flexible working arrangements, says the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Business owners can now make use of a new online tool developed by the government to hire their first employee, potentially preventing costly mistakes.
Over the period, payroll jobs showed the largest increase in Queensland and the Northern Territory, each rising by 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
While these job losses are linked to the end of its wage subsidy, more people are beginning to find jobs, says the treasury secretary.
Official figures also show an improvement in youth unemployment, which is now better than at the start of the pandemic.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has scrapped the A$450 (US$354) a month threshold to pay mandatory super in the 2021 federal budget.
JobTrainer was designed for 17 to 24-year-olds and the unemployed, and was initially slated to expire in September.
The announcement comes ahead of its Federal budget on May 11, and includes measures to support skills and investments in the digital workforce.
Larger businesses were twice as likely to have introduced remote working arrangements in response to COVID-19 as compared to smaller firms.
The current annual cap of A$10,560 per child will be removed, and instead increased to a maximum of 95% for families with two or more children.
Since end-2020, the number of Australians relying on unemployment benefits has fallen by 13% as the country continues to recover from the pandemic.
To increase women’s participation in the workforce, the Australian government is considering increasing childcare subsidies in its upcoming budget.
Major employer groups have argued for the Fair Work Commission to either impose a pay freeze or delay any pay hikes until February 2022.
In a first of its kind, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has upheld the termination of a childcare worker who had refused to get a flu jab.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that 70,700 net new jobs were created in March, double the expected 35,000.
To incentivise job seekers to move to new locations for work, the government is giving them an upfront cash payment of A$2,000 (US$1,539).
The number of job openings in March reached 238,700, rising for 11 straight months, according to the National Skills Commission.
The government is not raising minimum wages after ending its JobKeeper programme on March 28, citing job creation as one of its priorities.
The wage hike to A$26 a week would allow low-wage workers to spend more, and is an effective way of spurring local businesses.
Before interest rates are raised, the unemployment rate will likely need to fall to between the “low 4s” and “high 3s”, said RBA deputy governor Guy Debelle.
The unemployment rate fell in February to pre-pandemic levels amid the rollout of vaccination and fiscal stimulus stimulating the economy.
The extended scheme will see the government’s guarantee on loans increase to an 80/20 split with the banks, an increase from the current 50/50 split.
The scheme will see the government subsidise half of the wages for 70,000 apprentices for 12 months, incentivising businesses to hire younger workers.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has said the national gender pay gap decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 13.4% in the past six months.
The Australian government is looking to allow employees to choose between increased take-home pay and higher pension contributions.
The uplift was attributed to a reverse in salary cuts by businesses, as a measure to survive amid the economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19.
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and Safe Work Australia (SWA) have advised employers to assume employee vaccinations are not required.
The number of workers who collected wage subsidies decreased by about 2 million over an eight-month period last year.
