Australia’s unemployment rate has risen slightly to 3.8 per cent, up from last month’s surprisingly low figure of 3.7 per cent, after 6600 jobs were lost in March.
The jobless rate, revealed today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, is slightly better than market forecasts of a larger rise to 3.9 per cent.
“With employment falling by around 7000 people and the number of unemployed rising by 21,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 per cent,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
Jarvis said that, while higher than the February number, which came on the back of an unusually large surge in workers starting new jobs, the current unemployment level remains historically low.
“The labour market remained relatively tight in March, with an employment-to-population ratio and participation rate still close to their record highs in November 2023,” he said.
“While they have both fallen by 0.4 percentage points since then, they continue to be much higher than their pre-pandemic levels.”
While unemployment rose by 0.1 per cent, underemployment actually fell by the same number and the number of hours worked rose by 0.9 per cent.
“The recovery in growth in hours worked over the last two months has seen the annual growth rate rise to 1.7 per cent,” Jarvis said.
“This was still weaker than the annual growth rate in employment of 2.4 per cent, but that partly reflects the very high level of hours worked a year ago.”
