The latest labour force data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics – Labour Force data – for March 2017 shows a rather substantial jump in full-time employment (74,500 thousand) and a rising participation rate (up 0.2 points). That is usually a virtuous duet even though unemployment rose by 4 thousand and the unemployment rate was steady at 5.9 per cent. I say virtuous because it means that more jobs are being created and more people are coming back into the labour market to access the better environment. The curious thing though is tha total monthly hours of work barely rose, which leads one to suspect that the employment strength is a sampling issue and we will see next month whether the underlying behaviour over the last several months reasserts itself or whether March 2017 marks a shift to better times. Put me in the sceptical camp at this stage. Broad labour underutilisation remains high at 14.7 per cent with unemployment and underemployment summming to 1,890.3 thousand persons. The teenage labour market also showed some improvement but remains in a poor state. Overall, we will have to see.