Australia’s unemployment rate saw a slight uptick to 3.8 percent in March, as per official data released recently.
According to figures disclosed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the number of employed Australians witnessed a decrease of 6,600 individuals between February and March, leading to an increase in the unemployment rate from 3.7 percent to 3.8 percent.
News Corp Australia newspapers reported that economists had generally anticipated the unemployment rate to reach 3.9 percent in March.
The decline in employment follows a significant increase of 116,500 employed Australians between January and February.
While the ABS noted a growth of 27,900 in the number of Australians employed in full-time roles between February and March, part-time employment experienced a decline of 34,500 during the same period.
Despite the net decrease in employment, the total number of hours worked by Australians in March rose by 17 million or 0.9 percent compared to February, and was 1.7 percent higher than in March 2023.
The participation rate, a measure of the proportion of the working-age population either employed or actively seeking employment, witnessed a slight dip from 66.7 percent to 66.6 percent.
Bjorn Jarvis, head of labor statistics at the ABS, highlighted in a media release that the participation rate remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels and approached the record high of 67 percent set in November 2023.
18th Apr 2024
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