The Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed a surge in people heading back into the workforce as jobs became available and bosses are forced to increase wages.

The national unemployment level was 4.2 per cent, but some states, like Western Australia and Tasmania are already below the 4 per cent mark.

Economist Warren Hogan said Australia was about two months away from 50-year lows.

“I think we can safely say Australia has weathered the omicron storm. High frequency data shows solid demand growth in February highlighted by supercharged labour demand,” he said.

Queensland created 17,400 jobs in January as participation increased.  However, Queensland remains well down the ladder in the state league tables with only South Australia faring worse.

Conus Consultancy economist Pete Faulkner said full time employment was at a record high and annual employment growth was running at 3.8 per cent, but he also pointed out that the real beneficiaries were women.

“When we adjust the headline unemployment rate to account for those working zero hours for economic reasons we see that the effective unemployment rate in Australia and Queensland are both at 4.9 per cent,” Faulkner said.

“There has been a long-term shift in participation rates across the sexes and in Queensland that has translated into a new record high participation rate for females.”

Treasurer Cameron Dick said Queensland was the powerhouse of the national economy and had created 17,400 jobs when the national job creation level was only 12,900.

“So, without Queensland, Australia would have gone backwards,” the Treasurer said.

“Since we came to Government, the Palaszczuk Government has created 376,000 jobs or about 1000 jobs a week.”

The ANZ Bank said it was forecasting Australia’s unemployment rate to fall to the low 3s by the end of 2022 and remain there through 2023, with underemployment to also fall further in 2022.