Unemployment falls to 6.3%

The ABS has released the labour force survey for February, which revealed a slight 0.1% seasonally adjusted fall in the unemployment rate to 6.3%, with the trend rate unchanged at 6.3% (see below table).

Employment increased a seasonally adjusted 15,600 to 11,652,400, with full-time employment increasing by 10,300 to 8,062,000 and part-time employment increasing 5,300 to 3,590,400.

The Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 64.6%, whereas aggregate monthly hours worked increased 13.0 million hours (0.8%) to 1 ,620.8 million hours.

The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 14.9%.

I will be back with my usual detailed report shortly.