Unemployment rate remains at 3.9% but more people too sick to work

But while there was a rise in the participation rate, there was a steep drop again in the number of hours worked, which was significantly lower than at the same time last year.

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures the number of people working fewer hours than usual due to their own illness increased in May to around 781,000 people, almost double the usual number for this month.

Of these people, around 312,000 worked no hours, which was more than double the normal amount.

The unemployment data showed that the 61,000 increase in the number of employed people in May followed a smaller increase of 4,000 people in April, which coincided with Easter, school holidays, impacts from floods and ongoing disruptions associated with the omicron variant.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS said the May increase was the seventh consecutive increase in employment, following the easing of lockdown restrictions in late 2021.

Average employment growth over the past three months (30,000) continues to be stronger than the pre-pandemic trend of around 20,000 people per month.

The employment-to-population ratio increased to 64.1 per cent in May, a record high and 1.6 percentage points higher than March 2020. It was also a record high for people between 15 and 64 years old, at 77.4 per cent (3.0 percentage points higher than before the pandemic).

Seasonally adjusted hours worked increased by 0.9 per cent in May, following a 1.3 per cent increase in April.

“In addition to the continuing trend of increasing employment, we have continued to see relatively stronger growth in hours worked. This is something we also saw this time last year, before the Delta outbreak,” Mr Jarvis said.

With increases in both employment (61,000 people) and unemployment (8,000 people) in May, the participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 66.7 per cent, a new record high.

“For the first time ever, more than two out of three Australians aged 15 and over were participating in the labour force,” Mr Jarvis said.

“This was also a record high for people aged between 15 and 64 years, where it was more than four out of five people (80.6 per cent) in May.”

The youth participation rate (those aged between 15 and 24 years) increased by 1.0 percentage points to 71.9 per cent, the highest since October 1996.

The underemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 5.7 per cent, the lowest rate since August 2008.

The under-utilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, decreased 0.3 percentage points to 9.6 per cent. This was at its lowest level since April 1982.