Australia's unemployment rate fell in October as the labour market added more jobs and workers clocked up more hours, underscoring the resilience of the economy amid a record series of interest rate rises unleashed by the Reserve Bank.
Key statistics
unemployment rate remained at 3.5%. participation rate remained at 66.8%. employment increased to 14,045,800. employment to population ratio remained at 64.5%.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a substantial increase in labour market underutilisation, with more people wanting a job, or to work more hours, than employers need. While the economic outlook is highly uncertain, it is likely that the unemployment rate will remain elevated for a number of years.
Lauren Ford, ABS head of labour statistics said: "with employment increasing by around 53,000 people, and the number of unemployed decreasing by 1,600 people, the unemployment rate remained at a near 50-year low of 3.5 per cent.”
The number of Australians in a job has increased by over 1.1 million since late 2021 and the level of employment is now almost 8 per cent above its pre-pandemic level. Almost all the gains in employment since the onset of the pandemic have been in full-time employment (Graph 3).
Unemployment Rate in Australia averaged 6.66 percent from 1978 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 11.20 percent in December of 1992 and a record low of 3.40 percent in October of 2022.
Labour Force, Australia
unemployment rate remained at 3.5%. participation rate remained at 66.8%. employment increased to 14,045,800.
Youth. The unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 years stood at 12.7% (in trend terms) in June 2016—well in excess of the total unemployment rate (people aged 15 years and over) of 5.7%.
Australia Unemployment Rate is updated monthly, available from Feb 1978 to May 2023, with an average rate of 6.18%. The data reached an all-time high of 11.22% in Dec 1992 and a record low of 3.43% in Oct 2022. The data is reported by reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The bottom line
One reason unemployment has remained low is the low labor force participation rate. There are many reasons people tend to leave the workforce, but one major driver is the aging American population.
The first and most obvious factor is immigration. Australia has typically relied on migration for two-thirds of its population growth but when the pandemic hit in early 2020, international students and people on working visas were urged to leave.
A key reason many Australians are finding themselves on the jobs market sidelines is simply because they're too busy with life or study. Unemployed graduates make up a big chunk of the group.
In May 2023, Tasmania had the highest unemployment rate among all states and territories in Australia with approximately 4.2 percent of those eligible to work jobs not in employment. Queensland had the second highest unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.
12,049,397 people living in Australia in 2021 were employed, of which 59% worked full-time and 33% part-time. Australia's employment statistics are an important indicator of socio-economic status.
Australia's unemployment rate plummeted to 3.5% in June, the lowest rate in 48 years. On Thursday the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed 88,000 more people were employed in June and unemployment fell by 54,000, pushing the unemployment rate down by 0.4%.
Monthly surveyed urban unemployment rate in China June 2021-2023. In June 2023, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas of China ranged at 5.2 percent, remaining flat from the previous month. The quarterly unemployment rate in China stood at 5.2 percent in the second quarter of 2023.
Information from the 2021 census, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today, found that health care, retail, construction and education employed the most people across Australia.
New South Wales
There are currently no restrictions on the minimum age to work in NSW, however employees must be 17 to work full time. Employers, parents and teens looking to start work should look at the Fair Work Ombudsman, SafeWork NSW and NSW Department of Education for further information on work age restrictions.
Here, the minimum working age is generally considered to be 13. It's 11 for some forms of delivery work, like delivering newspapers, but children must be supervised. During the school term, a child can work a maximum of 12 hours a week with caps on how many hours they can work on school and non-school days.
Today's economists point to three main types of unemployment: frictional, structural, and cyclical. Frictional unemployment is the result of voluntary employment transitions within an economy. Frictional unemployment naturally occurs, even in a growing, stable economy as workers change jobs.
This will require a mix of policies aimed at continuous improvement of the education and training system, higher economic growth, less severe recessions, lower equilibrium real wages, improved and more systematic labour market programs, reform of the tax and social security system to reduce effective marginal tax rates ...
Australia Unemployment Rate: Trend data is updated monthly, averaging 6.179 % from Feb 1978 to May 2023, with 544 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.112 % in Nov 1992 and a record low of 3.485 % in Oct 2022.