Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.1% in May 2021, down 1.9% when compared to May 2020, according to data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics.

The unemployment rate stood at 5.5% in April 2021.

Australia’s JobKeeper Payment programme, its Covid-19 stimulus jobs package, ended on 28 March 2021.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 215,400 from May 2020 and was 22,400 lower than March 2020. It fell by 53,000 to 701,100 when compared to the previous month.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said May was the seventh consecutive monthly fall in the unemployment rate.

Over the year to May 2021, employment increased by 987,200 people (8.1%) and increased by 115,200 people (0.9%) to 13.12 million people.

Australia’s youth unemployment rate was 5.1% lower than May 2020, and 0.9% lower than March 2020.

Meanwhile, Australia’s labour force participation rate increased by 3.6% over the year to May 2021, and was 0.3% higher than March 2020.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in May 2021, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 13.0% over the year.