Australia's trend unemployment rate remained steady in January 2019 at 5.1 per cent, from a revised December 2018 figure, according to the latest information released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said: "The unemployment rate has remained at 5.1 per cent for a second month, supported by strong participation in the labour force, at 65.7 per cent."
Employment and hours
In January 2019, trend monthly employment increased by 24,900 persons. Full-time employment increased by 16,800 persons and part-time employment increased by 8,100 persons.
Over the past year, trend employment increased by 295,500 persons (2.4 per cent)which was above the average annual growth over the past 20 years (2.0 per cent).
The trend employment to population ratio, which shows how employed the population is, rose to a 10 year high of 62.4 per cent.
"The 15-64 year old employment to population ratio reached a historical high of 74.1 per cent, with almost three of every four 'working age' Australians now employed", Mr Hockman said.
The trend monthly hours worked increased by 0.1 per cent in January 2019 and by 1.6 per cent over the past year. This was slightly below the 20 year average year-on-year growth of 1.7 per cent.
The trend monthly underemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 per cent and decreased by 0.3 percentage points over the year. The trend underutilisation rate also remained steady at 13.3 per cent, and decreased by 0.7 percentage points over the past year.
States and territories
The trend unemployment rate increased in South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, decreased in New South Wales and Queensland, and remained steady in all other states and territories.
Seasonally adjusted data
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 5.0 per cent in January 2019, and the underemployment rate decreased to 8.1 per cent. The seasonally adjusted number of persons employed increased by 39,100 persons.
The net movement of employed in both trend and seasonally adjusted terms is underpinned by around 300,000 people entering and leaving employment in the month.