After a terrible year for jobs in 2016, the employment sector rebounded in 2017 with one of the best years on record. Not only did the unemployment rate fall to a five-year low, employment grew by more in one year than it has for nearly a quarter of a century. And in more good news, after full-time employment actually went backwards in 2016, last year saw a record growth of full-time jobs.

In his first press conference for the year, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, was not surprisingly in a chipper mood.

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In 2017, employment grew by 393,000 (in trend terms) – the biggest ever calendar year growth in a nominal sense (which given population growth doesn’t mean all that much). The 3.3% increase is the best since 1994.

Best of all it was across genders: 2.7% more men were employed – the best growth since 2010 – while women’s employment exploded by 4% – the best since 1995:

It is a growth that accords with a view I have held for some time, namely, that while the government might be lagging in the polls, the economic and, especially, employment picture very much suggests the Coalition is in a solid position to be re-elected.

The strong employment growth was also observed across the nation – only Northern Territory saw a decline. Queensland and New South Wales led the way, with even Western Australia seeing solid growth after four very lean years:

It all meant that while our unemployment rate remains well above that achieved during the peak of the mining boom, at 5.4%, it is as good now as it has been since the start of 2013:

The issue bubbling under all the good news about employment has of course been underemployment. But even here, while it remains high, it has fallen from the record levels that were reached at the start of 2017:

And such falls in underemployment are not surprising given last year was really about full-time employment. In 2017, full-time employment growth of 3.9% was the highest calendar year growth on record – stretching all the way back to 1967:

It came about because full-time employment grew strongly for both men and women. Of the 321,000 new full-time employment positions, 161,000 were women and 160,000 were men. That’s unusual given there are around 2.2 million more men employed full-time. And it goes to the changing nature of our economy.

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For men, the big gain in work came in the construction industry. While that is not a shock given that industry is the largest employer of men in the nation, the 108,000 new positions created in 2017 for men in construction made up 61% of all new male employment.

Of those jobs, a big chunk was in heavy and civil engineering construction – the benefit of the expansion of public infrastructure projects around the country.

For women, the big driver of work was healthcare and social assistance – with an equal number for work in hospitals and childcare, and another sizeable number for aged care work.

And while only 52% of women working in the healthcare industry work full-time, in 2017 nearly 90% of the newly employed women in that industry were employed full-time.

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It all adds up to prime aged workers (aged 25-64) being almost as likely to be working full-time now than ever before.

Since the GFC, the hit to full-time work has mostly been felt by the youth – in 2008, over 36% of those aged 15-24 worked full-time, now it is just 26%:

But while at the end of 2016, the percentage of those aged 25-64 working full-time had fallen to 55.9% (well below the mining boom peak of 57.4%), in the past year the surge of work has meant more people in that age bracket are employed full-time than any time in the past nine years:

And while we are unlikely to ever again see the levels of male full-time employment that occurred during the mining boom, where nearly 76% of men aged 25-64 worked full-time (currently it is 73.4%), the increase in women working full-time shows no sign of slowing:

At the end of last year, 41.3% of women aged 25-64 worked full-time, compared to 39% 10 years ago – the equivalent of an extra 145,000 women working full-time now than would have been had the level remained steady.

And all of these good numbers also means that Tony Abbott’s prediction prior to the 2013 election of creating 1m jobs in five years looks set to come to fruition.

Since September 2013, 949,000 extra people have been employed. Something would have to go seriously wrong in the next nine months for an extra 51,000 new positions not to be created.

It’s all good news, and is a very good sign of the health of the economy.

It also means the government will feel it has a strong case to make about its economic management as it shifts into pre-election mode.

For the ALP, the focus will remain on underemployment and low wages growth. If those two should improve (a big if), expect the treasurer to become even more chipper in press conferences this year.