The Australian economy continues its rise on the graph as the seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell by 0.2 percentage points.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate took a dip as 52,700 new jobs – mainly part-time, were created in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today, which makes it the largest rise in employment since December 2006.

Australia's rate of unemployment has continued to remain impressively lower than that of the other major developed economies.

"The rise in employment was driven by a rise in part-time employment, up 36,900 persons to 3.314 million together with a rise in full-time employment, up 15,900 persons to 7.652 million", The Australian Bureau of Statistics said. "For the third consecutive month, the ABS reported the number of people unemployed had decreased, down 22,300 persons to 612,000 in January".

Employment Minister Julia Gillard said “The figure showed the strength and resilience of both employers and employees during the economic downturn. Unemployment does tend to lag other economic indicators, which means you can continue to see unemployment to grow even as other economic indicators recover”.