More jobs were created in the health and aged care sector than the mining industry in the year to May, according to employment figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The figures showed the health and social assistance sector employed an extra 57,200 workers in the past 12 months, with education and training closely following with 44,400.

The mining industry was in fifth place, hiring an extra 35,200 workers. Mining now employs 217,100 Australians, up from 181,800 a year ago. In third place was the retail sector, which hired an additional 44,000 staff, while the finance sector showed up in fourth place, boosting employment by 31,800 - an all-time high for the industry.

On the other hand, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector lost the most jobs from the year to May, with 45,100. Transport, postal and warehousing lost the next amount of jobs at 17,600.

Other sectors to lose out were wholesale trade (14,400), manufacturing (5,000) and media & IT (4,000). In the past three months, 10 of the 19 sectors identified by the ABS lost workers as jobs growth slowed further.

Employment growth slowed to a trend rate of 1,800 a month in May, way below the pace of 26,000 a month 12 months earlier. Male employment was found to be falling at 4,200 jobs per month, while female employment fell at nearly half that, with 2,400 a month.

The report also revealed that increased part-time employment has cut the average working week to 33.7 hours, which is two hours less than it was 10 years ago.