Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was estimated at 5.5 per cent in April, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 50,100 to 11,663,200 in April. Both full-time and part-time employment increased, with full-time employment up 34,500 to 8,159,700 people and part-time employment up 15,600 people to 3,503,500. The increase in total employment was driven by increases in part-time and full-time employment for both males and females.

The number of people unemployed decreased by 2,700 people to 685,300 in April, the ABS reported.

The ABS monthly seasonally adjusted aggregate hours worked series increased in April, up 10.9 million hours (0.7 per cent) to 1,643.3 million hours.

The ABS reported a seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate increase of 0.2 percentage points to 65.3 per cent in April. 

More details are contained in the April 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), as well as the upcoming April 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) due for release next week on 16 May. These publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au.