Financial Wire

Australia's Unemployment Rate Steady at 4.3% in March

-- Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.3% in March, unchanged from the previous month, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday.

The consensus forecast was also for 4.3%, according to Trading Economics.

The total number of employed people increased by 17,900, bringing the total to 14.8 million.

Employment growth was led by an increase of 53,000 full-time workers in March, which was partly offset by a decrease of 35,000 part-time workers, said Sean Crick, the bureau's head of labor statistics.

The participation rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to nearly 67% compared with the previous month. The underemployment rate, which refers to the share of workers who want and are available to work additional hours, was flat at 5.9%.

The employment-to-population ratio remained at 64%, the report said. Monthly hours worked across all jobs increased by 9 million hours to 2.02 billion hours in March.

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