Australia’s employment levels unexpectedly decrease in March

Employment in Australia surprisingly decreased by 6,600 to 14,259,900 in March following a revised up 117,600 growth in February, the latest data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.

Market consensus had pointed to employment growth of 7,200.

The March figure marked the first decline in employment levels since December 2023. Part-time employment decreased by 34,500 to 4,406,100, while full-time employment rose by 27,900 to 9,853,800.

Meanwhile, the nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up to 3.8% in March from a five-month low of 3.7% in February.

The number of unemployed persons went up by 20,600 to 569,900, with people looking for full-time jobs increasing by 19,300 to 371,300. The number of persons looking for part-time employment rose by 1,300 to 198,600.

The participation rate was reported at 66.6% in March, down from 66.7% in February.

The underemployment rate was reported at 6.5%, or 2.3 points lower compared to the March 2020 level.

The Australian Dollar seemed to have overlooked the latest employment numbers, as it last gained 0.19% on the day against its US counterpart, with the AUD/USD currency pair trading at 0.6447.