Another beat!
Employment surged another 71,000 to a record high of 13.08 million in March.
The economy has added a thumping 189,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2021.
What a stunning recovery it has been, with total employment up by almost 1 million from the mid-2020 lows.
The participation rate jumped again to a record high of 66.3 per cent, 0.4ppts higher than a year earlier.
Even still the unemployment rate fell back further, from 5.83 per cent to 5.62 per cent in March.
The horror forecasts of double digit unemployment are but a distant memory now.
Over the first quarter of the surge in employment was driven by Victoria (+76,000) and New South Wales (+55,000).
But those two states are only recovering their jobs lost and have felt the lack of immigration quite keenly over the past year.
The real big winners have been Queensland (+63,000 over the year to March) and Western Australia (+28,000), where the unemployment rate has fallen to under 5 per cent.
South Australia's recovery has lagged a little bit, and employment is modestly lower over the year to March (-11,000).
New South Wales now has an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent, but Victoria still has a way to go from 6.1 per cent.
Overall, this was another tremendous result, though there is still a long way to go before full employment hoves into view.
Meanwhile the end of the JobKeeper payment program could cost an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 jobs, so there will be a speed-bump of some sort from that to navigate.
Onwards and upwards...
