Australian unemployment rate drops in March

Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 5.8 percent in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced on Friday. The seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 64.7 percent in March. The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 18, 100 to 11,553,200 in March. The increase in employment was due to increased female and male part-time employment, up 40,200 people to 3,524,000, offset by decreased full-time employment, down 22, 100 to 8,029,100. The number of people unemployed decreased by 29,900 to 713,200 in March, the ABS reported. The ABS monthly seasonally adjusted aggregate hours worked series increased in March, up 8.0 million hours to 1,617.2 million hours. The Australian Financial Review said if the unemployment figure is sustained in coming months, the improvement will force a major rethink within the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Treasury, both of which expect unemployment to average 6.2 percent across April, May and June. The newspaper said the latest data puts the RBA board in a difficult position, as the strengthening dollar will limit their ability to hike rates in the face of a sooner-than-expected rebound in the labor market, despite the risk of leaving the cash rate too low for too long. The RBA board decided at its meeting on April 1 to leave the cash rate unchanged at 2.5 percent, the lowest level in history. The latest unemployment figure has caused the Australian dollar to jump through 94 U.S. cents on expectations that interest rate rises might soon be on the agenda. The Aussie dollar traded at 94. 35 U.S. cents at 11:35 a.m. local time.