AKP Phnom Penh, 22 january, 2026--
Australia's unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in December as the total number of hours worked by Australians hit two billion for the first time, according to official figures released on Thursday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that the unemployment rate dropped from 4.3 percent in November to 4.1 percent in December, the equal-lowest level recorded in 2025.

It said that the total number of employed Australians increased by 65,200 between November and December, while the number of people officially classified as unemployed fell by 29,800 in the same period.

Full-time employment increased by 54,800 people, the ABS said, and part-time employment increased by 10,400 people.

"This month we saw more 15-24 year olds moving into employment, contributing to the rise in overall employment and the fall in the unemployment rate," Sean Crick, head of labor statistics at the ABS, said in a statement.

The total number of hours worked by Australians increased by 0.4 percent between November and December to a record-high of 2.0 billion.

The participation rate, which measures the share of working-age people who are either employed or actively looking for work, increased from 66.6 percent in November to 66.7 percent in December, but remained below the record-high of 67.2 percent set in January 2025.

AKP-Xinhua