Australia posted a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.6 percent in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That missed forecasts for a rate of 5.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from the previous month.

The Australian economy lost 36,100 jobs in March - well shy of forecasts for a loss of 7,500 jobs, but a foreseeable correction after an astounding 71,500 jobs were added in February.

The participation rate was 65.1 percent - missing forecasts for 65.2 percent and down from 65.3 percent a month earlier.

Employment decreased 36,100 or 0.3 percent to 11,592,700. Full-time employment was down 7,400 to 8,111,300, while part-time employment plummeted 28,700 to 3,481,500.

Unemployment increased 25,900 (3.9 percent) to 686,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 30,900 to 501,900 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 5,000 to 185,000.

Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 5.0 million hours to 1,627.3 million hours.