Labour force figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirm that Australia's unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the industrialised world.
Australia's unemployment rate ticked up to 5.6 per cent in March, but this is still less than half the rate in Europe at 12.0 per cent, and well below the OECD average of 8.0 per cent.
While today's figures show jobs declined in the month of March, this follows strong employment growth in February, with more than 50,000 jobs created since the start of this year and more than 100,000 jobs created over the past 12 months.
Acting Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Kate Ellis said the sustained high dollar, subdued global conditions and ongoing uncertainty in Europe continues to weigh on hiring decisions in some sectors, but the local labour market remains very strong compared to other developed countries.
"Despite the patchy nature of conditions across our economy, nearly 900,000 jobs have been created since the Labor Government came to office in November 2007," she said.
"That's an outstanding result given that many advanced economies are grappling with soaring debt problems and crippling unemployment, with economies like the UK on the verge of its third recession in four years."
"The fact is Australia has one of the strongest set of economic fundamentals in the world, with solid growth, low unemployment, contained inflation, low debt, and low interest rates.”
Full-time employment fell by 7400 in March while part-time employment decreased by 28,700.
