The trend of older people returning to the workforce slowed in February as the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released today, show employment fell 53,000 during the month but the number of unemployed fell by 11,000 people.
This balanced out the numbers and kept the unemployment rate steady.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said fewer older workers returned to work in February.
This decline in so-called “unretirement” contributed to the fall in employment as employment of older age groups declined over 12 months.
“This follows higher levels of employment in these age groups in recent years, particularly in 2024, alongside growth in the employment-to-population ratio over the last few years,’ Mr Jarvis said.
“In contrast, we continue to see growth in employment for people aged between 15 and 54 over the year.”
Despite the fall in employment in February, in seasonally adjusted terms it was still around 266,000 people or 1.9 per cent higher than last February.
This placed the annual growth rate at around the 20-year pre-pandemic average of 2.0 percent.
‘While the employment-to-population ratio fell 0.4 percentage points to 64.1 percent in February, it is still only 0.4 points below its historical high in December, and around where it was in June 2024,’ Mr Jarvis said.
The full report is on the ABS website.
