Prime Minister Scott Morrison has wrongly claimed he was five years old the last time the unemployment rate fell to four per cent.
The decline instead means it has reached its lowest level in more than 13 years, compared with 4.2 per cent in January.
The figure fell to four per cent in both February and August 2008 and before that, in 1978.
Mr Morrison sought to laud the result during a press conference in Perth on Thursday but got his facts wrong.
“I was five years old when we last had an unemployment rate this low,” he told reporters in Perth.
Mr Morrison was born in 1968, so would have turned five in 1973.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's office later said Mr Morrison misspoke.
Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers accused Mr Morrison of being untruthful in his statement.
“This isn’t the lowest unemployment rate since Scott Morrison was five, it’s the lowest since the last Labor government,” he tweeted.
“Is there anything this guy doesn’t lie about?”
In the latest results, the unemployment rate for women fell to 3.8 per cent, the lowest since May 1974, while for men the rate was 4.2 per cent.
Employment Minister Stuart Robert defended Mr Morrison’s claim during a press conference announcing the unemployment figure.
“That’s why I chose my words carefully to say it is the equal lowest rate so the prime minister is absolutely correct,” he said.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said 77,400 people joined the workforce in February, a stronger result than had been expected as the economy recovered from the impact of the Omicron variant outbreak.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said it was only the third time in the history of the monthly survey the unemployment rate has been at four per cent.
He said lower rates occurred in the data series before November 1974, when the jobs survey was conducted on a quarterly basis.
In February, Mr Morrison first said he believed the government could achieve an unemployment rate with a "three in front" of it, brandishing the target as evidence of the Coalition’s economic credentials.
The Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury both predict the unemployment rate will drop below four per cent this year and remain there in 2023.
Mr Morrison said there were around 325,000 more jobs now than before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
