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Australia Unemployment (% of active population, eop)

Unemployment rate drops in February

Seasonally-adjusted employment increased by 64,600 in February, following 10,900 jobs shed in January. February’s result was driven by a significant increase in full-time employment more than offsetting a decrease in part-time employment.

Moreover, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in February from January’s 3.7%. Additionally, the seasonally-adjusted underemployment rate fell to 5.8% in February from January’s 6.2%, and the participation rate rose to 66.6% from January’s 66.6%.

Commenting on the release, Robert Carnell, regional head of research at ING, stated:

“After the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) recent statement hinting that peak cash rates might be just one hike away, today’s labour data is a timely reminder to be very wary of such forward guidance.”

FocusEconomics panelists project the unemployment rate to average 4.0% in 2023, down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s estimate, and 4.3% in 2024.

Australia Unemployment (% of active population, eop) Data

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Unemployment (% of active population, eop) 5.6 5.0 5.1 6.6 4.2

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