Australia's unemployment rate has edged back up to 5 per cent, despite another strong month of job creation.

Key points: In seasonally adjusted terms 48,300 new jobs were created in March, while 22,600 part-time jobs were shed

In seasonally adjusted terms 48,300 new jobs were created in March, while 22,600 part-time jobs were shed The unemployment rate edged up 0.1 per cent from an eight year low of 4.9 per cent as more people looked for work

The unemployment rate edged up 0.1 per cent from an eight year low of 4.9 per cent as more people looked for work Measures of workforce slackness were largely unchanged keeping a lid on future wage growth

The slight rise in seasonally adjusted terms can be attributed to more people looking for work.

In trend terms, the unemployment rate has now held steady at 5 per cent for five months.

The good news in the figures was the bulk of the jobs were full-time positions.

Full-time work increased by 48,300, while 22,600 part-time jobs were lost.

No pressure to lift wages

However, the less positive news was the key measures of slackness in the workforce remain largely unchanged, meaning there is little in way of pressure to lift wages in the figures.

The underutilisation rate — a measure of both the unemployed and workers looking for more hours — remained stuck at 13.2 per cent.

Alex Joiner, economist with IFM, said while employment growth remained solid, population growth and more people looking for work made it difficult to cut the unemployment rate and push up wages.

"Strong population growth and elevated participation rates continue to be a double-edge sword for the RBA, they boost GDP growth but make it more difficult to get a tight enough labour market to push wages growth higher," Dr Joiner said.

Edging to a rate cut

The Reserve Bank has flagged the "tension" between strong jobs growth and weak GDP growth as its key concern.

Its minutes from the April board meeting laid down the conditions for a rate cut needed inflation to remain stuck below 2 per cent and unemployment to trend higher.

"We think that the first condition will be met in next week's Q1 CPI [inflation], but a trend increase in unemployment will take time, even as today's numbers showed a step in that direction," NAB's economics team wrote.

"For policy, we are pencilling in two 25 basis point rate cuts this year, the first in July.

"We still see the risk of an earlier move, but action would require more evidence of a weaker labour market, such as a large rise in unemployment or a material deterioration in the leading indicators of employment, and/or a more marked undershooting of the inflation target," NAB said.

Two-tiered jobs market

The data again points to the two-tiered nature of the Australian jobs market.

News South Wales and Victoria still have the lowest unemployment rates in seasonally adjusted terms (4.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively).

Unemployment jumped from 5.4 per cent to 6.1 per cent in Queensland despite a strong addition of 10,000 new jobs.

Western Australia's unemployment rated pushed back up to 6 per cent, South Australia also reported a rise in unemployment to 5.9 per cent, while Tasmania has the highest jobless rate at 6.7 per cent.

The ACT and Northern Territory reported "trend" jobless rates of 3.6 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

Overall the number of unemployed increased by 17,1000 to 680,000.

The number of hours worked increased by 0.7 per cent in the month.