Labour Force, Australia

Latest release

Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey

Reference period
March 2026
Released
16/04/2026
  • Next Release 21/05/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, April 2026
  • Next Release 25/06/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, May 2026
  • Next Release 23/07/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, June 2026
  • View all releases
Release date and time
16/04/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In trend terms, in March 2026:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.3%.
  • participation rate remained at 66.8%.
  • employment increased to 14,762,800.
  • employment to population ratio remained at 64.0%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 5.9%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 2,015 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in March 2026:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.3%.
  • participation rate decreased to 66.8%.
  • employment increased to 14,767,700.
  • employment to population ratio remained at 64.0%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 5.9%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 2,016 million.
  • full-time employment increased by 52,500 to 10,174,400  people.
  • part-time employment decreased by 34,600 to 4,593,300 people.

Modernising the Labour Force Survey

The ABS is improving how we collect the Labour Force Survey so we can continue producing high-quality labour force statistics, maintain strong response rates, provide a better experience for respondents, and run our business more efficiently.

For further details on these plans, see Modernising the Labour Force Survey, Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs and How the ABS quality assures Labour Force data during times of change.

Key statistics - Trend
Feb-26Mar-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,732,00014,762,80030,8000.2%201,3001.4%
Unemployed people655,800655,600-1000.0%37,6006.1%
Unemployment rate4.3%4.3%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.9%5.9%0.0 ptsna0.0 ptsna
Participation rate66.8%66.8%0.0 ptsna-0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,010 million2,015 million4 million0.2%39 million2.0%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Feb-26Mar-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,749,80014,767,70017,9000.1%258,8001.8%
Unemployed people660,000656,300-3,700-0.6%42,7007.0%
Unemployment rate4.3%4.3%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.9%5.9%0.1 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Participation rate66.9%66.8%-0.1 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,007 million2,016 million9 million0.5%49 million2.5%

Estimates of changes throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded level estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded level estimates.

For definitions of labour statistics used in this publication, please refer to Glossary of Labour Force, Australia methodology.

Survey impacts and changes

Survey response and timeline

Unemployment

In trend terms, in March 2026:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.3%.
  • unemployed people decreased by 100 to 655,600.
  • youth unemployment rate increased to 10.1%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

Employment

In trend terms, in March 2026, employment increased by 30,800 people (0.2%) to 14,762,800 people. 

Flows into and out of employment

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in March 2026:

  • full-time employment increased by 17,500 to 10,161,200 people, and part-time employment increased by 13,300 to 4,601,600 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 31.2%.

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in March 2026, the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.0%.

The employment-to-population ratio provides a measure of employment relative to the size of the population.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in March 2026, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased to 2,015 million hours.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

Participation

In trend terms, in March 2026, the participation rate:

  • remained at 66.8%.
  • remained at 70.7% for men and increased to 63.1% for women.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in March 2026:

  • underemployment rate remained at 5.9%.
  • underutilisation rate remained at 10.2%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, March 2026.

States and Territories

March 2026 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,559,9003,804,6003,030,300996,2001,680,000280,600146,300277,80014,762,800
Employed people - monthly change0.4%0.0%0.3%0.0%0.4%-0.1%0.3%0.5%0.2%
Employment to population ratio63.6%64.1%64.2%62.0%66.0%57.7%69.8%69.4%64.0%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.2 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate4.2%4.7%4.0%3.9%4.1%4.6%4.6%4.0%4.3%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.7%6.3%6.0%6.3%5.4%7.5%3.8%4.7%5.9%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.4%67.3%66.9%64.5%68.8%60.4%73.1%72.3%66.8%
Participation rate - monthly change0.2 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
March 2026 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,575,1003,786,2003,036,400994,7001,679,100280,100145,700280,10014,767,700
Employed people - monthly change0.6%-0.7%0.7%0.0%0.5%-0.4%0.3%1.3%0.1%
Employment to population ratio63.8%63.8%64.3%61.9%65.9%57.6%69.5%69.9%64.0%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.3 pts-0.6 pts0.3 pts-0.1 pts0.2 pts-0.3 pts0.1 pts0.7 pts-0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.3%4.8%3.7%4.0%4.2%4.6%4.4%4.2%4.3%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.2 pts0.1 pts-0.7 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.6 pts0.7 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.9%6.3%6.0%6.9%5.6%7.6%3.8%4.9%5.9%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.4 pts0.4 pts-0.3 pts0.9 pts0.2 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts0.5 pts0.1 pts
Participation rate66.6%67.0%66.8%64.4%68.8%60.4%72.7%73.0%66.8%
Participation rate - monthly change0.4 pts-0.6 pts-0.2 pts-0.2 pts0.2 pts-0.2 pts-0.4 pts1.3 pts-0.1 pts

Historical charts

Historical charts for employed, unemployed, unemployment rate and participation rate from August 1966 to March 2026

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

States and Territories

Comparability with seasonally adjusted and trend data

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data downloads

Labour Force Survey results are currently released in three stages.

  1. Spreadsheets of the headline indicators are published in this release
  2. Additional, more detailed spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release
  3. Longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab on a monthly basis, one day after the detailed release (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia)

The ABS is improving how we collect the Labour Force Survey and how the data is published. As part of these changes, the March 2026 release of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed will be the final release of the Detailed product. For full details on upcoming changes to the survey outputs, see Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs.

Labour Force status

Data files

The Labour Account is the best source of quarterly data for the market and non-market sectors. For information, see Industry employment guide.

The ABS will be removing Table 21 as part of the Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs.

Hours worked

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

Flows into and out of employment

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, April 2007 to March 2026

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, Historical (from February 1991)

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Labour Force status by Sex, State and Territory - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 onwards.

Labour Force monthly hours worked by Sex, State and Territory - Monthly hours worked by employed people, monthly, July 1978 onwards.

Labour Force status by Age Groups - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 onwards.

Labour Force Educational Attendance - Educational attendance (Full Time) for 15-24 year olds by State, Territory and Sex, monthly, April 1986 onwards.

Article archive

Employment and jobs

Unemployment and underemployment

Hours worked

Methodology

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

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