Employment in Australia increased by 338,300 in March 2022, an increase of 2.6% from the same period a year ago, according to seasonally adjusted figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The number of jobs was up by 0.1% (17,900) on a monthly basis.

When compared to March 2020, employment was 394,400 people (3.0%) higher. In March 2022, employment reached 13,389,900 people.

At the same time, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.0%, down from 5.7% in March 2021 and unchanged from the previous month. The unemployment rate was 1.3% below March 2020.

The number of unemployed people decreased year-on-year by 236,700, or 30% to 551,300 in March 2022. When compared to the previous month the unemployment rate fell by 12,100, or 2.1%.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said, “4.0% is the lowest the unemployment rate has been in the monthly survey. Lower rates were seen in the series before November 1974, when the survey was quarterly.”

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2022, monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 1 million hours (0.1%) to 1.803 billion hours but increased by 38.2 million hours (2.2%) from March 2020. Over the month, monthly hours fell by 10 million (or 0.6%).

“With floods in New South Wales and Queensland, a higher than usual number of people reported working reduced hours due to bad weather in March,” Jarvis said. “This was in addition to the high number of people away from work due to illness, reflecting further disruption from the Omicron variant.”

“The fall in hours in March follows falls in payroll jobs and wages over the same period,” Jarvis said. “Like hours, that data can show larger short-term changes than for employment, because employees may be away from paid work for a short period without losing their job.”   

Australia’s labour force participation rate stood at 66.4% in March 2022, up 0.1% over the year and unchanged over the month.