The jobless rate has dropped to 3.4 per cent, defying expectations of an increase and returning to the lowest level in 48 years.
About 32,200 jobs were added to the Australian economy, with the participation rate remaining at 66.5 per cent.
The October employment figures from the national statistics bureau reveal robust demand for labour, with jobs still plentiful and workers in short supply.
"With employment increasing by around 32,000 people and the number of unemployed decreasing by 21,000 people, the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4 per cent," Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said.
Economists broadly expected to see the jobless rate edging up from 3.5 per cent to more like 3.6 per cent.
For men, the unemployment rate fell to the lowest rate since 1974, dropping to 3.2 per cent. For women, it held steady at 3.6 per cent.
The overall unemployment rate has been hovering near 50-year lows and first hit 3.4 per cent in July.
The jobless rate rose back up to 3.5 per cent in August and September.
The fall in hours worked due to illness eased slightly from earlier in 2022, but remained about one-third higher than usually seen in October.
"But the recent rise in COVID case numbers suggests there could be more volatility ahead in hours worked," BIS Oxford Economics head of macroeconomic forecasting Sean Langcake said.
Fierce competition for labour fed into a 3.1 per cent annual boost to wages for the 12 months to September.
However, pay rises are still lagging well behind inflation, with real wages dropping a record 4.2 per cent for the year.
© AAP 2022