Australia's unemployment rate steady at 6% in February

Australia's unemployment rate remained at 6.0 percent in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. The total number of people with jobs rose by 47,300 to 11,530, 800 in February, the ABS said on Thursday. The rise in employment was driven by an 80,500 increase in full- time positions in the month. In February, full-time employment increased to 8,049,900 while part-time employment fell 33,300 to 3,480,900, the bureau said. The participation rate - the proportion of people in work or looking for work - rose by 0.2 percentage points to 64.8 percent in February, the ABS reported. Economists believe that the data will help ease job concerns to some degree and lift consumer confidence in Australia. Australian financial services firm CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian told the Australian Associated Press (AAP) that the figures were consistent with the Reserve Bank of Australia's expectations.