There’s no denying jobs are returning and that’s good news, especially for women. That partly explains why I haven’t had time to scratch myself.

Australian employment surpassed all expectations to jump for a fifth consecutive month in February, while the jobless rate fell by far more than expected.

It’s a sign the country’s economy is moving in the right direction.

The number of South Australians in work in February rose by 6700 to 847,400, with 3200 of those positions being full-time.

There were 3800 more SA women employed in February and 2800 men employed compared with January’s figures.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday (yesterday) showed employment nationally rose by 88,700 in February, on top of a roughly a 29,000 gain in January.

Analysts had forecast a 30,000 increase.

The jobless rate dropped to 5.8%, from 6.4%, far better than market forecasts of 6.3% and down from a peak of 7.5% in July.

Beware about how the ABS calculates unemployment figures but it’s moving in the right direction.

Thursday’s data showed employment has now risen above 13 million people, 4,000 people higher than in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses to pull down shutters.

All of the gains in February were driven by full-time employment with women accounting for more than three-quarters of the increase, the figures showed.

Don’t pop the champagne just yet as the coronavirus supplements for JobKeeper and JobSeeker end in 12 day’s time. But more people in jobs is good news, no matter how it’s spun.