Updated April 13, 2017 13:24:09

Photo: ANZ's job ads series is foreshadowing a gradual improvement in employment growth. (Giulio Saggin, file photo: ABC News)

Australia's unemployment rate has remained steady at 5.9 per cent in March, boosted by the creation of 60,900 jobs.

The even better news in the data was that all of the additions were full-time positions.

The Bureau of Statistics estimated that 74,500 full-time jobs were created in March, while 13,600 part-time jobs were lost.

The participation rate jumped by 0.2 percentage points to 64.8 per cent, meaning a greater proportion of the population was in work or looking for it.

This increase in participation is the reason why the unemployment rate remained stuck at 5.9 per cent, despite extremely strong jobs growth.

However, Capital Economics analyst Paul Dales said the increases in participation and employment are suspiciously large.

"The rise in employment needs to be taken with a shovel of salt," he said.

"It's the biggest absolute change since October 2015. On that occasion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) had problems with its survey sample.

"That's the most likely explanation this time too. Indeed, the size of the labour force rose by a very large 64,900 too.

"That pushed the participation up from 64.6 per cent to an eight-month high of 64.8 per cent and left the unemployment rate at 5.9 per cent.

"In other words, it seems that the ABS discovered there were a lot more people in the labour force in March, and the share that were unemployed happened to be the same as before."

CommSec chief economist Craig James pointed out that the trend figure is a better indicator of the labour market's true health.

ABC business reporter Michael Janda explains how the jobs data are calculated and what to look for in the figures.

"It is a case of the trend is your friend. The seasonally adjusted job figures are clearly volatile," he wrote in a note.

"But the trend data smooths out the bumps and shows employment rising by 16,500 in March with the jobless rate at 5.8 per cent.

"That seems to line up better with all the other economic indicators and surveys."

The result was much better than forecast, with the typical economist having expected employment to increase by around 20,000 and unemployment to remain at 5.9 per cent.

The Australian dollar jumped on the data, hitting 75.7 US cents by 11:45am (AEST).

Topics: economic-trends, unemployment, australia

First posted April 13, 2017 11:36:24