Australia recorded its strongest May jobs growth since 2007, driving down the unemployment rate to the lowest level in a year, confounding Reserve Bank of Australia expectations for a further deterioration in the labour market.

The strong result – which saw 42,000 jobs added in the month and a fall in the jobless rate to 6 per cent from a revised 6.1 per cent in April – almost immediately left most economists doubting whether they were an accurate reflection of the real economy after the Australian Bureau of Statistics warned it had uncovered significant anomalies in its data.