Employment Minister Julia Gillard said on Thursday the fall in Australia's unemployment highlights the impact of the government's economic stimulus.
The jobless rate for January dropped unexpectedly to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent in December with official data showing 52, 700 jobs were created in the month, much higher than economists' forecasts of 15,000 new jobs.
Gillard said the figure showed the "strength and resilience" of both employers and employees during the economic downturn.
It also highlighted the help employers had from the government' s economic stimulus.
Gillard acknowledged that most of the 52,700 jobs created in January were part-time, but said the number of full-time positions was growing, as opposed to previous months.
The government was standing by the Treasury's forecast that unemployment would peak at 6.75 percent by June 2011.
"Unemployment does tend to lag other economic indicators, which means you can continue to see unemployment to grow even as other economic indicators recover," Gillard said./.