The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 3.6 per cent in May, according to ABS data.
“With employment increasing by around 76,000 people and the number of unemployed decreasing by 17,000 people, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 per cent,” said Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics.
“The strong growth in employment in May followed a small decrease in April, around Easter, when employment fell by more than it usually would over the holiday period.
“Looking over the past two months, the employment increases average out to around 36,000 extra employed people each month. This is still around the average over the past year of 39,000 people a month.”
The number of employed people in Australia hit 14 million for the first time.
“Just before the start of the pandemic almost 13 million people were employed in Australia. In May 2023, this had risen to just over 14 million people,” Jarvis said.
“In addition to there being around a million more employed people than before the pandemic, a much higher share of the population is employed.
“In May 2023, 64.5 per cent of people 15 years or older were employed, an increase of more than two percentage points (2.1) since March 2020.”
Monthly hours worked decreased by 1.8 per cent, following a 2.7 per cent increase in April.
