Unemployment rate falls to 4.4% in May
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.4 per cent in May, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “Over the past few months, we have recorded higher proportions of unemployed people waiting to start jobs who then remained unemployed in the following month.
“The backlog of people waiting to start a job has eased in May, contributing to the 40,000 rise in employment and 18,000 fall in unemployed persons.”
Full-time employment grew by 5,000 and part-time employment by 35,000.
Hours worked down 1.1 per cent in May
Hours worked was down 1.1 per cent in May after a 0.9 per cent rise last month.
“In April, less people took leave during the Easter holiday period and instead worked their usual hours, contributing to non-seasonal strength in hours worked,” Mr Crick said.
“The fall this month brings hours worked back in line with employment growth since the end of the pandemic in June 2022.”
Index: June 2022 = 100
Source: Labour Force, Australia Tables 001 and 017
Trend unemployment rate at 4.4 per cent
Trend employment and hours worked both grew by 0.1 per cent in May.
“Trend employment has grown at a monthly rate of 0.1 per cent since January 2025,” Mr Crick said.
Labour Force modernisation
The ABS is modernising how it collects data in the Labour Force Survey, continuing to publish quality labour market statistics, while improving the respondent experience.
As outlined in the article How the ABS quality assures Labour Force data during times of change, the ABS is undertaking extensive quality assurance on the Labour Force Survey estimates during the modernisation period. This process confirmed that the May estimates are accurate. Further information about rotation group analysis is available in Survey impacts and changes.
More information is available in the Modernising the Labour Force Survey media statement.
We thank everyone who participated in and supported this survey.
Post-release note
The underemployment and underutilisation data published in this release have since been revised.
Updated data is now available in the Labour Force, Australia, May 2026 publication. Please see the 'Main features' section for more details.
This issue does not affect the core Labour Force measures. That is, it does not affect employment, the unemployment rate, the participation rate or hours worked data.
Media notes
- The May survey reference period was from 3 May 2026 to 16 May 2026.
- The June survey reference period was from 31 May 2026 to 13 June 2026.
- ‘Unemployed people waiting to start a job’ are people who are not currently employed, have already obtained a job that will start within a specified period, and were available to start work in the following four weeks if the job had been available sooner.
- Numbers may not be additive due to rounding.
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