Total construction work done in Australia rose 5.5 per cent in the March quarter, according to official data.

Construction work in chain volume terms, seasonally adjusted, was valued at $48.300 billion in the March quarter, compared with $45.780 billion in the December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Wednesday.

The median market forecast was for total construction work done to have risen 3.0 per cent in the March quarter.

The ABS said total building work done in the March quarter was $18.451 billion, seasonally adjusted, from $19.427 billion in the December quarter.

Engineering work done was $29.850 billion in the March quarter, from $26.353 billion in December.