The federal government's leading employment index has fallen for four consecutive months, but it is too early to expect sub-trend employment growth to continue in coming months.
The leading jobs indicator anticipates movements in the growth cycle of employment, with a turning point confirmed after six consecutive monthly moves in the same direction.
The indicator of employment fell 0.023 index points in February to minus 0.423 points.
"It is still too early to tell whether employment will continue to grow more slowly than its long-term trend rate of 1.1 per cent per annum over coming months," the employment department said on Wednesday.
The index has four weighted components: ANZ Newspaper Job Advertisements, Dun and Bradstreet Employment Expectations, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index of Economic Activity and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index.
Official labour force data for January will be released on Thursday.
Economists expect the number of people employed to have grown by 15,000 in January compared with December but with the jobless rate rising to 5.9 per cent from 5.8 per cent in the previous month.
