Western Australia has recorded one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates for January, beaten only by South Australia, new figures show.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today said WA's jobless rate had fallen by 0.1 per cent to a seasonally adjusted 5 per cent in January.
The total number of unemployed people in the state dropped by 1,400 to 61,700, while the participation rate dipped from December's 68.4 per cent to 68.2 per cent.
The number of people employed in a full-time capacity increased from 823,000 to 824,600.
WA's jobless rate was the second lowest in the nation, beaten by South Australia which recorded a 0.8 per cent drop to 4.4 per cent in January.
New South Wales had the highest unemployment rate at 5.6 per cent, while Victoria recorded 5.3 per cent and Queensland reported a 5.5 per cent jobless rate.
Nationally the unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted to 5.3 per cent in January, compared with an unrevised 5.5 per cent in December.
Total employment rose by 52,700 to 10.966 million in January, seasonally adjusted.
Full-time employment rose by 15,900 to 7.652 million in the month and part-time employment was up by 36,900 to 3.314 million.
The participation rate in January was 65.3 per cent, unchanged from December.
The median market forecast was for total employment to have risen by 15,000 in January, an unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent and a participation rate of 65.2 per cent.