Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bragg for his question. The labour force figures that have been released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the Australian labour market—and that is, of course, the employers out there—continued to recover strongly in February 2021. What we saw last month was employment actually increase by 88,700 over the month, and that exceeded all market expectations. Importantly, all states and territories across Australia recorded a rise in employment over the month, so the ending of those COVID restrictions is well and truly seeing the states and territories now create jobs. There are now more than 13 million Australians in work. That means that the level of employment is now 3,600 above the pre-COVID level in March 2020. In fact, it's 876,400, or 7.2 per cent higher than the trough in the labour market recorded in May 2020.

In terms of job creation in the month of February, the increase in employment over the month, I am pleased to say, was due entirely to a surge in full-time jobs. Full-time jobs rose by around 89,100 in February. We now have full-time employment at a record high in Australia, at 8,895,000. As our Minister for Women knows, women accounted for the vast majority of the rise in employment in February. That was up by 74,100. That is also at a record high, at 6,174,200. We also saw the unemployment rate drop by half a percentage point. So we're seeing a strong recovery in the labour market.