Australia jobless rate ticked lower in March, full time jobs surprised negatively

Australia unemployment rate ticked lower to 5.5 percent in March even as the economy added only 4,900 jobs, the latest data published by Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed this Thursday. The markets were expecting job addition of 21,000.  Employment for the previous month was 17,500 addition.

Meanwhile, full-time jobs came in at 19,900, compared to +54,900 seen in February. Meanwhile, part-time employment rose 24,800.

March Key Points (Source: ABS)

Trend Estimates (Monthly Change)

• Employment increased 14,000 to 12,485,800.
• Unemployment increased 3,500 to 735,000.
• Unemployment rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 5.6%.
• Participation rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 65.7%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 0.2 million hours (0.01%) to 1,733.7 million hours.

Seasonally adjusted estimates (Monthly change)

• Employment increased 4,900 to 12,484,100. Full-time employment decreased 19,900 to 8,514,100 and part-time employment increased 24,800 to 3,970,000.
• Unemployment decreased 2,400 to 730,200. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 9,300 to 522,400 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 11,700 to 207,800.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5%
• Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 65.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 4.5 million hours (0.26%) to 1,740.4 million hours.