Australia's unemployment rate remains flat at 4.2 per cent

Australia's unemployment rate has remained at 4.2 per cent in January, unchanged since the same figures were released in December 2021.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that seasonally adjusted unemployment increased by 6000 people in January, while the participation rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 66.2 per cent, near its all-time high of 66.3 in March 2021.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said there was a large fall in hours worked in January 2022 as more Australians took sick leave or fell ill with the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

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"January is the middle of summer and usually only around 90,000 to 100,000 people in Australia are away from work sick for an entire week. In January 2022 it was around 450,000 people (3.4 per cent of employed people)," Mr Jarvis said.

"The January 2022 figures are also much higher than in the winter months in Australia, when sick leave has usually peaked in August at around 140,000 to 170,000 people."

Mr Jarvis said employment data showed the states that had the largest Omicron infection numbers also saw the most employees reducing their hours at work.

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"Nationally, and in New South Wales and Victoria, the number of people who worked reduced hours because they were sick was around three times the pre-pandemic average for January. In other states and territories, it was twice as many people," Mr Jarvis said.

"Western Australia was the only jurisdiction with a usual low number of people working reduced hours in January because they were sick.

"The number of people working no hours at all in a week because they were sick was particularly high at more than four times the pre-pandemic average."

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Despite remaining flat a national unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent remains the lowest recorded in more than 13 years.

Earlier this month while addressing the National Press Club, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was aiming to drive unemployment before four per cent - a figure not seen since November 1974.

"I believe we can now achieve an unemployment rate with a 3 in front of it this year. Our goal is to achieve this in the second half of 2022," he said.

"We have not seen this in Australia for almost half a century. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."