In seasonally adjusted term, Australian employment market grew 4.6k in February, well below expectation of 15.2k. Full-time employment dropped -7.3k while part-time jobs grew 11.9k. Unemployment rate dropped to 4.9%, down from 5.0%. That’s also the lowest level since June 2011. However, participation rate dropped by -0.2% to 65.6%.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased in New South Wales (up 0.3 pts to 4.3%) and Victoria (up 0.2 pts to 4.8%). Decreases were observed in Western Australia (down 0.9 pts to 5.9%), Queensland (down 0.6 pts to 5.4%), South Australia (down 0.6 pts to 5.7%) and Tasmania (down 0.5 pts to 6.5%).
ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said: “The trend unemployment rate declined 0.5 percentage points over the year, from 5.5 per cent to 5.0 per cent. The pace of decline slowed in recent months, which was consistent with the slowdown seen in recent Job Vacancies and GDP numbers.”
