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The unemployment rate has surprised economists, falling to 6.4 per cent for the month of January, official figures show.
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Unemployment falls with the creation of 29k new jobs
19 February 2021
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The latest employment data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown a drop in unemployment from 6.6 per cent in December due to a seasonally adjusted increase in jobs by 29,000.
However, job recovery is not even across the workforce, with full-time employment up by 59,000 to 8.8 million jobs and part-time employment down by 29,800 to 4.1 million jobs.
Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said this latest data showed a continued recovery in the labour market into the new year.
“January 2021 was the fourth consecutive monthly rise in employment, as employment in Victoria continued to recover,” he said.
“Nationally, employment was only 59,000 people lower than March 2020, having fallen by 872,000 people early in the pandemic.”
With Victoria continuing to recover, South Australia now has the highest unemployment rate at 7.1 per cent, followed by Queensland with 7 per cent.
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New figures from the ABS reveal the number of employed people in Victoria rose by 1.3 per cent — the most of any jurisdiction.
The ACT has the lowest jobless rate at 4.4 per cent.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the figures were something to celebrate.
“It has been a remarkable recovery in the Australian labour market. To see the unemployment rate fall to 6.4 per cent today and to beat market expectations, and to see a net increase of more than 29,000 jobs, all of which are full-time, is something to celebrate,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Mr Frydenberg is confident the labour market would continue to be resilient when the JobKeeper wage subsidy ends in March.
“There are regions, there are sectors, there are many Australians who are still doing it tough,” he said.
“But the overall trajectory in our labour market has been in the right direction.”
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