Australia's unemployment rate remained at a seasonally adjusted 5.2 per cent in May, in line with expectations.
The number of employed persons rose by 42,300 to a total 12.87 million during the month, while Thursday's seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed a 2,400 decrease in the number of people without work, to 704,700.
However, the monthly underemployment rate edged 0.1 points higher to 8.6 per cent with part-time jobs accounting for 94 per cent of the monthly increase.
The seasonally adjusted participation rate for May increased 0.1 points to 66 per cent.
BIS Oxford Economist Sarah Hunter said the figures confirmed the Reserve Bank's view that the economy needed to generate more jobs to reach full employment, and that policy loosening was needed to achieve this.
"Output per worker is now declining, which, together with slack in the labour market, is weighing on wages growth," Dr Hunter said.
"With people continuing to enter the labour market and/or seek more hours than they currently work, there is very little supply side pressure on wages, and with labour productivity falling firms cannot sustainably increase wages for workers without reducing their profit margins."
Analysts expected the jobless rate to remain steady in a range of 5.1 and 5.2 per cent following a surprising uptick in April that ultimately forced the Reserve Bank to cut rates to a new record low last week.
The Australian dollar fell in the five minutes after the data's release but climbed back from 69.17 US cents to 69.26 US cents by 1142 AEST.
