Labour Force, Australia

Latest release

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

Reference period
May 2026
Released
25/06/2026
  • Next Release 23/07/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, June 2026
  • Next Release 20/08/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, July 2026
  • Next Release 24/09/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, August 2026
  • View all releases
Release date and time
25/06/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms, in May 2026:

  • the employment-to-population ratio increased 0.1ppts to 63.8%.
  • the unemployment rate decreased by 0.1ppts to 4.4%.

In trend terms, in May 2026:

  • the employment-to-population ratio remained at 63.8%.
  • the unemployment rate increased marginally to 4.4%.

Main features

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 - Seasonally adjusted
Apr-26May-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,698,50014,738,80040,3000.3%147,5001.0%
Employment to population ratio63.7%63.8%0.1 ptsna-0.5 ptsna
Unemployed people689,600671,300-18,300-2.7%50,3008.1%
Unemployment rate4.5%4.4%-0.1 ptsna0.3 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.8%5.9%0.1 ptsna0.0 ptsna
Participation rate66.6%66.7%0.0 ptsna-0.3 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,032 million2,010 million-22 million-1.1%10 million0.5%
Key statistics - Trend
Apr-26May-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,733,60014,753,70020,2000.1%185,0001.3%
Employment to population ratio63.8%63.8%0.0 ptsna-0.3 ptsna
Unemployed people669,800672,8003,0000.5%41,6006.6%
Unemployment rate4.3%4.4%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.9%5.8%0.0 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Participation rate66.7%66.7%0.0 ptsna-0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,016 million2,018 million3 million0.1%43 million2.2%

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

Labour Force Modernisation

Rotation group analysis

Survey dates

Quarterly rebenchmarking of labour force statistics

Employment

In May 2026, employment increased by 40,300 people (0.3%) to 14,738,800 people in seasonally adjusted terms. Full-time employment increased by 5,200 to 10,140,800 people, and part-time employment increased by 35,200 to 4,598,000 people.

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, May 2026.

Employment-to-population ratio

In May 2026, the employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.1ppt to 63.8% in seasonally adjusted terms. The employment-to-population ratio decreased by 0.1ppt to 67.4% for males, and increased by 0.3ppt to 60.2% for females.

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, May 2026.

Unemployment

In May 2026, the unemployment rate fell by 0.1ppt to 4.4% in seasonally adjusted terms, with the number of unemployed people decreasing by 18,300 to 671,300 people. The unemployment rate remained at 4.6% for males and decreased by 0.2ppt to 4.1% for females. The youth unemployment rate decreased by 0.6ppt to 10.4%.

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, May 2026.

Underemployment

In May 2026, the underemployment rate rose by 0.1ppt to 5.9% and the underutilisation rate fell marginally to 10.2% in seasonally adjusted terms.

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, May 2026.

Participation

In May 2026, the participation rate rose marginally to 66.7% in seasonally adjusted terms. The participation rate fell by 0.1ppt to 70.6% for males and rose by 0.1ppt to 62.8% for females.

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, May 2026.

Hours worked

In May 2026, monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 21.5 million hours to 2,010 million hours in seasonally adjusted terms.

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, May 2026.

In seasonally adjusted terms, monthly hours worked in all jobs fell by 1.1%, which was weaker than the 0.3% rise in employment.

States and Territories

May 2026 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaAustralia
Employed people4,525,3003,798,1003,044,700987,5001,676,000278,70014,738,800
Employed people - monthly change0.0%0.6%0.6%0.3%-0.9%-0.1%0.3%
Employment to population ratio63.0%64.0%64.3%61.4%65.6%57.0%63.8%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.0 pts0.3 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts-0.7 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.3%4.9%3.7%4.2%4.6%5.3%4.4%
Unemployment rate - monthly change-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.5 pts0.1 pts0.4 pts0.3 pts-0.1 pts
Underemployment rate5.6%6.6%5.4%6.2%4.9%6.8%5.9%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.2 pts0.2 pts-0.4 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts
Participation rate65.9%67.2%66.8%64.2%68.7%60.2%66.7%
Participation rate - monthly change-0.1 pts0.4 pts-0.1 pts0.2 pts-0.5 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts

Seasonally adjusted estimates for NT and ACT are not available due to having no seasonality. The ABS recommends using trend data.

May 2026 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,532,1003,799,0003,043,800988,3001,684,800279,600150,100278,70014,753,700
Employed people - monthly change0.1%0.0%0.3%-0.1%0.2%-0.1%0.7%0.3%0.1%
Employment to population ratio63.1%63.9%64.3%61.5%65.9%57.1%70.7%69.4%63.8%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate4.3%4.9%3.9%4.1%4.4%5.0%4.5%4.0%4.4%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.6%6.5%5.6%6.2%5.0%6.9%4.2%4.3%5.8%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.0%67.2%66.9%64.1%68.9%60.2%74.1%72.4%66.7%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts

Data downloads

Labour Force status

Data files

Modelled labour market regions (SA4)

MLF1. Modelled estimates of labour force status, by SA4 (ASGS), Age and Sex (Pivot Table)

Hours worked

Data files

Status in employment

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

Additional data downloads

The below tables have previously been advertised in the Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs article as not being available during the transition due to potential data quality concerns. The ABS has reviewed these data items for the May collection and determined that they are fit for use.

These tables will not be published for June and July due to changes in timing of collecting this information in our existing and new questionnaires. The ABS will review these data items for the August 2026 quarter once the August Labour Force data has been collected to determine whether they will be published or not. 

Additional data downloads

Data files

Table name concordance

This table provides a concordance between the Labour Force data downloads prior to Labour Force Modernisation and the current format. For further details on these changes, see Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs.

Labour Force Australia – Table name concordance (transition period)

All spreadsheets

All spreadsheets

Data Explorer datasets

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. 

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.

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

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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