World

Australian unemployment falls to 48-year low

CANBERRA
2022-05-19 14:11

Already collect



CANBERRA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Australia's unemployment rate has fallen below 4 percent for the first time in almost 50 years.

According to labor force data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the official unemployment rate in April was 3.9 percent, down from 4 percent in March.

It marks the first time since the ABS started recording unemployment data on a monthly basis in 1978 that the figure has fallen below 4 percent.

"The last time the unemployment rate was lower than this was in August 1974, when the survey was quarterly," Bjorn Jarvis, head of labor statistics at the ABS, said in a media release.

For males, the jobless rate fell 0.2 points to 4 percent, the lowest level since October 2008, while for females it remained steady at a record low of 3.7 percent since 1974.

The fall in unemployment was largely driven by a decline in the labor force participation rate, with only 4,000 jobs added between March and April.

The underemployment rate, which measures the number of employed people who are not working as many hours as they would like, fell from 6.3 to 6.1 percent, the lowest level since September 2008.
Add comments

Latest comments

Latest News
News Most Viewed