New analysis of ABS data showed 234,000 more Australians gained work between May and November last year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the level of jobs growth is history-making and world-beating.
“With growing global pressures set to impact us more in 2023, having more Australians in good jobs is one of our best defences,” he said.
Australia’s employment growth rate of 1.7 per cent between May and November 2022 is faster than that of the US, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Japan, and the UK.
“One of the things that we do have going for us is that we’ve got more and more Australians finding a job. In fact, in terms of jobs growth, this is the strongest start for a new government in terms of jobs growth on record,” Mr Chalmers said.
However, Mr Chalmers said the budget expects unemployment to hit around 4.5 per cent.
“Unemployment right now in the middle threes is an extraordinary achievement for Australia,” he said.
“And as I said before, we are particularly pleased and proud that jobs growth was stronger than any comparable period for any previous government on record. We want to see strong jobs growth, we want to see strong and sustainable wages growth along with it and we need to deal with these skills shortages in our economy and we’re acting on all three of those fronts simultaneously.”
Mr Chalmers also said there will be major cost-of-living relief measures in the May budget focussing on electricity bill relief.
“We expect and hope that electricity bill relief will be meaningful. We think that the biggest pressure as we confront the first half of 2023 and beyond into the rest of the year will be energy prices,” he said.
“Clearly we will do what we can when we can, when it’s responsible and sensible and affordable to provide cost-of-living relief.”
