Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.4 per cent in April, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Economists has been expecting jobless rate to remain steady at 5.3 per cent. An ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) survey on job ads out this week indicated that employment growth had slowed down in April. ANZ survey showed that total number of jobs advertised online and in newspapers decreased 1.2 per cent in April.

The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 33,700 to 11.025 million in April. The number of people in full-time work rose 37,500 to 7.74 million in April, from 7.70 million in March, while the number of people in part-time work fell 3,900 to 3.29 million.

The bureau said its seasonally adjusted workforce participation rate, or the proportion of working-age persons at work or actively seeking work, remained at 65.2% in April.

Aggregate monthly hours worked fell 0.5% to 1.53 billion hours in April from March.

The government has forecasted unemployment rate to drop to 5 per cent by the end of 2010/11 and to decline further to 4.75 per cent in the following year.

"With the unemployment rate expected to continue to fall, there is a risk that capacity pressures may re-emerge in certain sectors as the resources sector, both directly and indirectly, places increasing demand pressures on the labour market," the papers said.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said in his budget speech on Tuesday that Australia had created 225,000 jobs during the past year.