Unemployment rate remains at 4.4% in June

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.4 per cent in June, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics, said: “In June, we recorded a 76,000 person rise in employment, driven by a 47,000 person rise in part-time employment.

“Part of the growth in employment this month came from those who were waiting to start a job in May. This represents a stronger June movement than has been observed in recent years.

“We also continued to see higher numbers of people remaining employed this June, following elevated levels in the recent few months.

“The number of unemployed rose by 13,000 people in June, which combined with the growth in employment, led to the participation rate rising by 0.3 percentage points to 67.0 per cent in June."

The underemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.5 per cent in June.

“People aged 55-64 years old had the largest annual growth in the participation rate, up 0.8 percentage points to 70.6 per cent,” said Mr. Crick.

“The number of part-time hours worked grew 1.2 per cent this month, with full-time hours worked remaining flat,” Mr Crick said.

“Annually, employment rose 1.7 per cent from June 2025, and hours worked grew 1.8 per cent.”

Trend employment grew by 0.2 per cent while hours worked remained flat in June.

Both the trend underemployment and underutilisation rates increased 0.1 percentage points, to 6.3 per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively.

The ABS is modernising how it collects data in the Labour Force Survey, including moving to new systems and further developing our suite of Labour Force products.

 “The transition to our new system will give survey participants a modern, easy and secure way to complete the Labour Force Survey,” Mr Crick said.

We thank everyone who participated in and supported this survey.

In August, some households will be completing both the Monthly Population Survey (used for Labour Force data) and the 2026 Census.

Both questionnaires are critical for Australia’s policy setting and serve different purposes.

We greatly appreciate households filling out both these questionnaires.