Australia's unemployment falls to lowest level in almost 50 years

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Australian unemployment fell to the lowest level in almost 50 years as hiring persisted, a boost for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government in the final days of campaigning ahead of Saturday's election.

Employment rose by 4,000 in April from a month earlier in the month, as a surge in full-time roles was partly eroded by a drop in part-time positions, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Thursday. Unemployment fell to 3.9%, matching forecasts, while labor market participation fell to 66.3%.

Morrison is trying to extract maximum impact from the report as opinion polls show this week that his center-right government is making some ground on the opposition Labor party. With the economy moving along strongly, household wealth at a record high and offshore risks mounting, now is not the time for a change.

The Reserve Bank of Australia expects wages growth to accelerate to 3% this year from 2.4% earlier this month, allowing it to extend a rate tightening cycle that began this month.

Sean Langcake, head of Macroeconomic Forecasting for BIS Oxford Economics, said the unemployment rate is at a level that is expected to generate higher wage growth over the rest of 2022. As we saw in yesterday's wages data, this may be a sluggish process, but we believe there is still enough evidence for the RBA to raise rates at the June meeting. The RBA increased by 25 basis points to 0.35% on May 3, its first increase in 11 -- 1 2 years, and indicated further rises are in the prospect. Financial market pricing points to an oversized 40 basis-point increase in June, followed by hikes every month through December.

The cash rate would reach 2.7% by the end of the year, a heavy burden for Australia s heavily indebted households.

Labor party leader Anthony Albanese argues that times have never been tougher for Australian households, with inflation running at twice the pace of wages growth.

Labor is backing bigger pay rises for workers, pointing out that the economy recorded the biggest fall in real wages in more than two decades in the first three months of the year.

None of the underemployment fell by 0.2 percentage point to 6.1% and the underutilization rate declined by 0.3 point to 10% None The unemployment rate for males fell by 0.2 point to 4%, its lowest level since October 2008 and fell by 0.2 percentage point to 4%. For females, it held at 3.7%, the lowest since May 1974.

The employment to population ratio remained the same at 63.8%.

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