Australia’s unemployment rate was 3.9% in April, the lowest rate measured in nearly 48 years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday.

“Three-point-nine percent is the lowest the unemployment rate has been in the monthly survey,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS. “The last time the unemployment rate was lower than this was in August 1974, when the survey was quarterly.”

April’s unemployment rate is unchanged from March in rounded terms. The ABS originally reported a rate of 4.0% in March but revised down March’s unemployment rate to 3.9% with the release of the April numbers.

The unemployment rate for males fell by 0.2 percentage points to 4.0% in April — its lowest level since October 2008. For females, the rate remained at 3.7% for a second month in April, the lowest it has been since May 1974.

Jarvis said Australia saw employment rise by 4,000 in April and unemployment fall by 11,000 people. It marked the sixth consecutive monthly increase, and the employment to population ratio remained at 63.8%.

Seasonally adjusted hours worked increased by 1.3% in April, largely reflecting a bounce back from the March falls in flood affected areas.

“Hours in New South Wales and Queensland increased in April following the impacts of the floods in March,” Jarvis said. “The number of people working fewer hours than usual due to bad weather dropped from its March peak of over 500,000 to around 70,000 people in April.”

In line with rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in April, the number of people working reduced hours due to illness continued to be high, reflecting ongoing disruption associated with the Omicron variant, according to the agency.

“Around 740,000 people worked reduced hours in April because of illness, almost double what we usually saw in April before the pandemic,” Jarvis said. “Of these people, around 340,000 worked no hours, which was around triple what we would usually see.”