The December figure was an unrevised five per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Thursday.
Total employment rose by a seasonally adjusted 24,000 to 11.441 million in the month.
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Fulltime employment fell by 8,000 to 8.022 million in January and part-time employment was up by 32,000 to 3.419 million.
The January participation rate was 65.9 per cent, from an unrevised 65.8 per cent in December.
The forecast was for total employment to have risen by 16,500 in January with unemployment steady at five per cent and for an unchanged participation rate of 65.8 per cent, according to the median of 12 economists surveyed by AAP.
