![ScreenHunter_04 Feb. 22 12.14](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_04-Feb.-22-12.14.gif)
As The Prince reported earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this morning released the labour force data for the month of April, and like last month’s print, it is very good.
In seasonally adjusted terms, total employment increased 15,500 (0.1%) to 11,501,000. Full-time employment decreased 10,500 (0.1%) to 8,062,800 and part-time employment increased 26,000 (0.8%) to 3,438,200..
The below chart shows the changes in these components since April 2008. As you can see, this month’s employment gain of 15,500 persons caps-off two good months for the Australian labour market. The only caveats are that last month’s gain of 44,000 persons was revised down in this release to 37,600 and the economy shedded 10,500 full-time jobs in April.
![ScreenHunter_01 May. 10 12.18](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_01-May.-10-12.18.gif)
The total level of employment in Australia has again reached an all-time high, surpassing last month’s peak:
![ScreenHunter_02 May. 10 12.22](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_02-May.-10-12.22.gif)
On a rolling annual basis, employment growth was 0.60% in April, and has clearly recovered from the low of -0.01% reached in December 2011:
![ScreenHunter_03 May. 10 12.25](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_03-May.-10-12.25.gif)
Despite the creation of 15,500 jobs – and increase of 0.1% – the headline unemployment rate fell by -0.3% to 4.9%. This is primarily because the labour force participation rate fell by -0.2%, accentuating the employment gain (see below chart).
![ScreenHunter_05 May. 10 12.33](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_05-May.-10-12.33.gif)
Australia’s labour force participation rate is now -0.8% below the peak level reached in November 2010:
![ScreenHunter_06 May. 10 12.36](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_06-May.-10-12.36.gif)
Another positive from the release is that the aggregate number of hours worked rose by 6.6 million hours in April, and has risen for the past three months:
![ScreenHunter_07 May. 10 12.41](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_07-May.-10-12.41.gif)
The annual change in aggregate hours worked has also turned sharply positive – up 2.6% in the 12 months to April 2012, with Western Australia leading the charge (up 10.6%):
![ScreenHunter_08 May. 10 12.45](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_08-May.-10-12.45.gif)
At the state level, Victoria (+23,200) and Western Australia (+6,800) created the most jobs over the month, whereas New South Wales (-23,800) lost jobs:
![ScreenHunter_10 May. 10 12.50](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_10-May.-10-12.50.gif)
Over the year, however, Western Australia has dominated, contributing 70% of Australia’s new jobs:
![ScreenHunter_11 May. 10 12.51](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_11-May.-10-12.51.gif)
Reflecting its status as Australia’s resources capital, Western Australia has by far the lowest unemployment rate in the nation (3.8%). By contrast, Tasmania (8.3%) and Victoria (5.3%) are the laggards.
![ScreenHunter_12 May. 10 12.54](https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ScreenHunter_12-May.-10-12.54.gif)
So overall it’s an unequivocally strong result, which must count against the Reserve Bank of Australia further lowering interest rates at its next meeting. The official ABS result also continues the divergence between it and the unofficial Roy Morgan measure (more on this later).