Too many Australians are working multiple jobs just to pay their bills, unions have argued, after the nation's unemployment rate dropped to an eight-year low.
The jobless rate dipped by 0.1 percentage points to 4.9 per cent in February, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
That is the first time the figure has fallen below five per cent since 2011, with a 11,900 spike in part-time jobs offsetting a 7300 fall in full-time roles in the month.
Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer says the data shows the jobs market is in great health.
But in a report released on Friday focused on the number of Australians balancing two or more jobs, the Australian Council of Trade Unions begs to differ.
Data released last week showed 1,010,400 jobs held by Australians in the three months to December were secondary jobs.
That was the first time the number had exceeded a million since the ABS started the metric in September 2010.
In the past two years alone, the number of secondary jobs has grown by more than 20 per cent, or by 174,300.
The actual number of people working multiple jobs rose in that time from 6.4 per cent to 7.2 per cent.
The ACTU's Sally McManus says the trend comes as Australians are finding it harder to pay their bills and find secure, steady jobs.
"With the rise of insecure work, flat wages and high cost of living, the problem is people have to work two of these jobs just to make ends meet," she said.
The body is calling for a rebalancing of the jobs market, through the revision of labour laws, wage-setting mechanisms and more consideration of problems with insecure work.
Ms O'Dwyer stressed on Thursday that the majority of 280,000 new jobs created in the past six months have been full-time.
The underemployment rate - which reflects people not working as many hours as they would like - was unchanged in February at 8.1 per cent.
Australian Associated Press
