SYDNEY, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Australian job growth slowed down in March, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics' labour force report for March released Thursday.

For the past 17 months, employment in Australia has increased, making it the strongest period of job growth since records began 40 years ago.

Although the report showed a seasonally adjusted increase of 4,900 jobs in March, the figures came in blow the market expectations of an increase of about 20,000.

Despite this, Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5 percent.

"The slowdown in employment growth comes on the back of a very strong run through 2017 and with labour market leading indicators remaining positive there are still reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for employment and unemployment this year," said Felicity Emmett, ANZ Bank senior economist.

"Buoyant business conditions and ongoing strength in job vacancies suggest that employment will continue to expand and the unemployment rate should trend lower in coming months."

Despite the lift in jobs however, there is still some concern surrounding full-time employment and wage growth. While part-time positions rose by 28,000, full-time work fell by 19,900.

"The levels of underemployment and underutilization, whilst easing, are still way above levels that would signpost some acceleration in broad based wages growth," Commonwealth Bank senior economist John Peters said.

Shortly after the read, the Australian dollar's value sank almost one third of a U.S. cent to 77.64.

By 1500 AEST however, the local currency had bounced back and was trading at 78.05 U.S. cents.