Key points:​
- The unemployment rate is the equal lowest level it has been since the ABS monthly labour force survey started in 1978
- Participation is at a record high, with 66.4 per cent of Australians aged over 15 either in work or looking for it
- Hours worked rebounded in February, but absences due to illness were still almost double usual levels due to Omicron
The last time the jobless rate was this low was August 2008, and it has never been lower in ABS data going back to 1978.
Between World War II and the 1970s, unemployment in Australia was more typically around 2 per cent, but those figures pre-date the current ABS labour force survey.
The monthly Bureau of Statistics figures estimated that 77,400 extra people were employed in February, taking unemployment down from 4.2 to 4 per cent.
Hours worked rebounded 8.9 per cent, recovering from the COVID-19 Omicron wave of absences that saw working hours plummet in January.
But the ABS head of labour statistics, Bjorn Jarvis, said the effects of Omicron were still evident.
“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,” he noted.
