- The unemployment rate is the lowest since August 2008 at four per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- The result is from the month of February, where it dropped 0.2 per cent from the previous period
- Notably, this is only the third time in the history of monthly surveys when unemployment was as low as four per cent
- Employment increased for the fourth month in a row, by around 77,000 people in February
- The participation rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 66.4 per cent, an all-time high
The unemployment rate decreased to four per cent in February, the lowest percentage since August 2008, according to figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
This means that the unemployment rate dropped 0.2 per cent.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said this is only the third time in the history of the monthly survey when unemployment was as low as four per cent.
“Lower unemployment rates occurred in the series before November 1974, when the survey was quarterly,” he said.
“The 3.8 per cent unemployment rate for women was the lowest since May 1974. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for men fell to 4.2 per cent, its second lowest level since November 2008 and just above the rate from December 2021 of 4.1 per cent.”
Employment increased for the fourth month in a row, by around 77,000 people in February and was around 202,000 people higher than the pre-Delta period high of June 2021.
Hours worked rebounded in February by 8.9 per cent, after a large fall of 8.6 per cent in January, when a high number of people were sick or on leave, mainly due to COVID-19.
“While hours worked rebounded in February, they were still around 0.5 per cent below December, and also still slightly below (0.2 per cent) the pre-Delta period high of May 2021, reflecting a second month of impacts associated with the Omicron variant,” Mr Jarvis said.
The participation rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 66.4 per cent, an all-time high.
The underemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.6 per cent. This was 2.2 percentage points lower than March 2020 (8.8 per cent) and the lowest it had been since November 2008.