Even so, Queensland’s intake for the 2022 year was 116,000, or 2.2 per cent, compared with WA’s 62,000, or 2.3 per cent.

In total numbers, NSW and Victoria were still one and two with 138,000 and 137,000 respectively.

Net overseas migrants into Queensland (58,000) also outpaced net interstate migrants (34,500) by a significant margin.

Also released was the unemployment data which showed a decrease in the national jobless rate to 3.6 per cent. Queensland’s rate grew marginally to 3.9 per cent.

The national rate was likely to feed into concerns about another rate hike in July.

ANZ said the a rate hike was now more likely than not.

The total employed also broke through the 14 million market for the first time and represented an increase of 1 million since the just before the pandemic hit in 2020.

ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said that in addition to there being around a million more employed people than before the pandemic, a much higher share of the population is employed. In May 2023, 64.5 per cent of people 15 years or older were employed, an increase of more than two percentage points (2.1) since March 2020.

“A greater share of women in Australia are employed than ever before, with their employment to population ratio and participation rate both at record highs in May,” Jarvis said.

“Looking over the past two months, the employment increases average out to around 36,000 extra employed people each month. This is still around the average over the past year of 39,000 people a month.”