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The unemployment rate has fallen back to 3.5 per cent in February from 3.7 per cent the previous month.

Around 64,600 jobs were added to the economy over the month, official Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data shows.

"With employment increasing by around 65,000 people, and the number of unemployed decreasing by 17,000 people, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 per cent," ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

"This was back to the level we saw in December."

The participation rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 66.6 per cent, also back to its December level.

"The February increase in employment follows consecutive falls in December and January," Mr Jarvis said.

Many economists expected a bounce back in the employment numbers due to the unusually high number of people waiting to start a new job in the month prior.

BIS Oxford Economics head of macroeconomic forecasting Sean Langcake said these people have instead been captured in the February report, effectively unwinding the weak January result.

Across the states, the ACT recorded the lowest unemployment rate of 2.9 per cent, followed by NSW, at 3.2 per cent.

The return to a national unemployment rate in the mid-threes will likely support the case for further interest rate rises.

"The labour market continues to track in a very strong position, and is starting to generate faster wage growth," Mr Langcake said.

He said labour cost pressures were still under control but the Reserve Bank would be wanting to make sure this remains the case.

The RBA has softened its communications around future rate hikes and indicated it is getting closer to putting interest rates on hold.

Mr Langcake said the unemployment rate was expected to drift upwards over 2023 due to higher interest rates cooling demand.

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The jobs market may have surpassed its tightest point, but official data is expected to reveal plenty of heat left in it.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to release the February labour force report on Thursday.

The January report was weaker than projected, with 11,500 jobs lost from the economy, and the unemployment rate rising to 3.7 per cent.

While the jobs market is showing signs of moderating from historic low levels of unemployment, seasonal factors played a role in the weak January result, and some economists are predicting a recovery in employment for February.

But forward-looking indicators, such as job vacancies and advertisement data, are pointing to a slowdown in employment, St George economists wrote in an analysis.

"Moreover, a rapid recovery in net overseas migration is improving the supply of labour," St George chief economist Besa Deda said.

She said the jobs data would be central to the Reserve Bank's April cash rate decision.

Ms Deda also said signs of financial instability in the US and now Europe would be putting more pressure on central banks to take the accelerator off rate hikes.

"Our own central bank, the Reserve Bank, is also increasingly unlikely to hike when it meets next month amid this backdrop and broader evidence of slowing in the economy," she said.

A new report has highlighted broader trends in the nation's job market, including the top jobs for Australian workers in the past 20 years.

The SEEK report shows sales assistant has remained the top occupation since 2001.

Registered nurse, general clerk, aged and disabled carer and retail manager rounded out the top five occupations in 2021, with aged-care worker a relatively new addition to the top rankings.

As well as the rise in service-based roles, the SEEK report also charted the evolution in technology occupations.

"Ten years ago, jobs in ICT were the most in-demand according to SEEK's job ad volume," the report said.

"But the shift away from traditional tech roles, plus the permeation of technology into other industries across the board, saw the ICT industry drop to fifth by 2022."

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An attack by former Labor prime minister Paul Keating on a landmark military deal has not shaken the government's confidence in the security arrangement, the defence minister says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced details of Australia's submarine pact with the United States and United Kingdom - part of the AUKUS security alliance - on Tuesday.

But at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Keating issued a scathing assessment of AUKUS, labelling it Australia's worst international decision since the conscription policy during World War I.

As part of the security arrangement Australia will command a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines within the next three decades.

But Mr Keating condemned the $368 billion price tag and questioned Australia's sovereignty within the arrangement.

He also fired shots at senior federal government ministers including Defence Minister Richard Marles, and issued withering assessments of US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The landmark military deal is largely seen as an arrangement to combat China's rising influence, but Mr Keating said it was unnecessary.

Mr Marles said Mr Keating remained a revered figure within the Labor Party.

He told ABC 7.30 no matter what the former prime minister said about him, Mr Albanese or Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the government would not say a bad word about Mr Keating.

"The Hawke-Keating government was the great peacetime, reformist, long-term government in our history," he said.

"It's a government that finished in 1996 (and) our responsibility is to be governing the country in the national interest in 2023."

Mr Marles said the government had worked hard to stabilise Australia's diplomatic relations with China.

"We want to have a productive relationship with China, but we do observe that we are seeing the biggest conventional military build-up in the world today since the end of the Second World War," he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the former prime minister's comments showed there was division within the Labor Party over AUKUS.

"I think it is incumbent upon Richard Marles and others ... to rebuke the unhinged comments of Mr Keating," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"(The government) should be taking the advice of the military and intelligence chiefs as opposed to Paul Keating."

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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australia's plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines comes with a "very high risk" of failure and faces huge challenges of recruiting and training enough skilled workers.

It follows Labor's most revered living leader Paul Keating launching a scathing attack on the landmark military deal, which he described as Australia's worst international decision since the conscription policy during World War I.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced details of Australia's submarine pact with the US and UK - part of the AUKUS security alliance - on Tuesday.

As part of the arrangement, Australia will command a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines within the next three decades.

Mr Turnbull said Australia would need to train thousands of skilled workers, who then faced a challenge of finding work in a relevant field after the project finished.

"The human resources challenges of this are really considerable, because we don't have a nuclear industry in Australia," he told ABC RN.

The former Liberal leader said the deal came with a "very high risk" of failing to deliver because the British submarines were yet to be designed.

Mr Turnbull also questioned whether Britain was going to be "financially strong enough" to be Australia's partner in delivering the boats, with the country's economy forecast to be the worst-performing large advanced economy this year.

He said unlike the UK, France - which Australia tore up a $90 billion submarine deal with for AUKUS - was already in the Indo-Pacific and had millions of citizens located there.

Mr Turnbull said all of these issues should have been publicly debated.

"We've been caught up in this hoopla where anyone that expresses any concerns about it is accused of being or implied that they're lacking in patriotism," he said.

Mr Keating condemned the $368 billion price tag and questioned Australia's sovereignty within the arrangement.

Minister for Defence and Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said Mr Keating remained a revered figure within the Labor Party.

He told ABC 7.30 that no matter what the former prime minister said about him, Mr Albanese or Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the government would not say a bad word about Mr Keating.

"The Hawke-Keating government was the great peacetime, reformist, long-term government in our history," Mr Marles said.

He said the government had worked hard to stabilise Australia's diplomatic relations with China.

"We want to have a productive relationship with China, but we do observe that we are seeing the biggest conventional military build-up in the world today since the end of the Second World War," Mr Marles said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Keating's comments showed there was division within the Labor Party over AUKUS.

"I think it is incumbent upon Richard Marles and others ... to rebuke the unhinged comments of Mr Keating," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"(The government) should be taking the advice of the military and intelligence chiefs as opposed to Paul Keating."

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