Australian jobs: Slight lift in unemployment despite 32,000 new jobs in March

Australia’s unemployment rate has edged up slightly to 4.1 per cent despite another strong month of job creation in March.

About 32,000 people found work across the country in the month, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday.

Both the employment and unemployment figures increased slightly because more Australians were participating in the jobs market.

The numbers cover the period before US President Donald Trump unleashed chaos on financial markets with super-sized new taxes on trade in early April. While Mr Trump has watered down the proposals, the full impact on Australia’s economy is yet to be clear.

The ABS data follows a year of super strong employment growth in 2024 powered by a population boom, rising workforce participation and government spending.

More than 400,000 jobs were created through the year.

Minutes from the Reserve Bank’s April meeting — released this week — showed its experts believed the jobs market remained tight. The smoking-hot labour market was a key reason why the RBA held out until February before cutting interest rates.

Unemployment was still low while job ads and vacancies were strong.

But February’s jobs data had brought a shock fall in employment amid a major exodus from the workforce, though the RBA expected those figures would be a one-month blip.

The RBA’s policy board will keep a close eye on the latest numbers and will update its own forecasts next month.

Markets closed on Wednesday night tipping a 70 per cent chance of a cut at the RBA meeting in May.

But Van Eck head of investments Russel Chesler, speaking before the data was released, said he would not be surprised if the central bank held rates at the meeting. That’s because the impact of US tariffs was still playing out.

“The continued resilience in Australia’s jobs market over the last three years — despite the steep rate hikes — along with continued growth in retail trade and property prices, demonstrates that purely on this data there is little urgency for the RBA to accelerate its rate cut timelines,” he said.