In an unexpected development, Australian employment dropped sharply by 52,800 jobs in February, as opposed to a 30,000 gain that analysts had forecasted.
“With employment falling by 53,000 people and the number of unemployed falling by 11,000 people, the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%,” said Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Full-time roles decreased by 35,700, while part-time roles fell by 17,000. Underemployment decreased to 5.9%.
The ABS said that fewer older workers returning to work in February contributed to the fall in employment this month, with lower levels of employment in the older age groups in February 2025 compared with 2024.
“This follows higher levels of employment in these age groups in recent years, particularly in 2024, alongside growth in the employment-to-population ratio over the last few years,” said Jarvis.
Despite the fall in employment in February, in seasonally adjusted terms it was still around 266,000 people – or 1.9% – higher than last February. This annual growth rate is around the 20-year pre-pandemic average of 2%.
The Australian dollar fell after news of the latest employment figures broke, with the Oz dollar retreating 0.4% to US63.36¢, from US63.56¢.
“The Aussie is losing a bit of ground on the headlines, but from a policy perspective the RBA is unlikely to be disturbed by the data,” said Rodrigo Catril, a strategist at National Australia Bank, reported Bloomberg.
The RBA is not expected to cut rates at its next meeting on April 1, according to several analysts, but the markets predict a 77% chance the RBA will ease the interest rates in May.
For the December quarter, GDP rose 0.6%, supporting RBA’s decision to recently introduce a small rate cut. It was the highest quarterly rate of GDP growth since December 2022, and resulted in annual GDP increase to 1.3% from 0.8% in September. GDP per capita also increased 0.1% in December, breaking a run of seven consecutive quarterly declines in living standards.
