Prime Minister John Howard says he expects more negative economic figures will be released in the months and years ahead but is urging people to keep a sense of perspective about the state of the economy.
Mr Howard says the latest jobs figures, which have been released today, confirm the underlying strength of the economy.
The figures show that an extra 20,000 jobs were created in February, keeping Australia's unemployment rate steady at 5.1 per cent, a 28-year low.
Mr Howard says it is understandable that some economic figures released last week were seen in a negative light.
"There's no point in pretending that you can preside over an economy for nine years or more and expect that every single statistic is going to be positive, it never can be and it never will be," he said.
"There'll be other statistics in the months and years ahead that will be more negative than we would like."
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says the unemployment rate continues to be the lowest in 30 years and is good news for the Australian economy.
"What this means is that there has never been a better opportunity to get a job," he said.
"In fact in the Australian economy at the moment far from talk about unemployment there seems to be a lot more talk about shortage of labour -shortage of labour is a good problem to have, it means people can find work."
But Labor's employment spokesman, Penny Wong, says the overall low figure disguises a continuing problem for Australia's youth.
"More than one in five young Australians are unemployed and that is simply too high," she said.
Interest rates
Many economists believe the latest strong jobs data points to another interest rate rise in the near future.
ANZ senior economist David de Garis says the figures are unlikely to dissuade the Reserve Bank from pushing rates higher.
"If anything it probably adds a little bit to the case for another rise in April," he said.
But Stephen Koukoulas, from TD Securities, says another rate hike will depend on how the rest of the economy is performing.
"There's more to the economy than just employment," he said.
"The sentiment numbers are turning down, the housing's still looking to be quite soft."
The strong data has helped the Australian dollar rally a third of a cent to 79.7 US cents at 4.15pm (AEDT).
