Employment and unemployment

In trend terms, in March 2025:

• unemployment rate remained at 4.0%.
• participation rate decreased to 66.9%.
• employment increased to 14,567,200.
• employment to population ratio remained at 64.2%.
• underemployment remained at 5.9%.
• monthly hours worked remained at 1,972 million.

Detailed monthly and quarterly Labour Force Survey data, including hours, regions, families, job search, job duration, casual, industry and occupation

In December quarter 2024:

• 1.1 million people (aged 18-75) without a (paid) job wanted a job, with 1 million available to start within 4 weeks.
• The most common reason men who wanted a job were unavailable to start within 4 weeks was 'Long-term health condition or disability'. The most common reason women who wanted a job were unavailable to start within 4 weeks was 'Caring for children'.
• 2.1 million people without a job did not want a job, with a further 1.8 million either retired or permanently unable to work.
• The main reason for not wanting a job was 'No need, satisfied with current arrangements' (45%).

There were 2,517,900 public sector employees in the month of June 2024 comprising:

• 365,400 employees in Commonwealth government (including defence force personnel);
• 1,939,100 in State government; and
• 213,500 in Local government.

Total public sector cash wages and salaries in 2023-24 was $232,136.6 million.

In June 2024:

• there were 7.6 million families, an increase of over 1.0 million since June 2014.
• there were 1.4 million jobless families, which represents 19% of all families.
• 284,000 one parent families were jobless.
• Almost three-quarters (73%) of the 2.2 million couple families with children aged 0-14 years had two employed parents.

In  February 2024:

• 1.9 million people were not working but wanted to work 
• Job mobility decreased to 8% for the first time in 3 years
• The annual retrenchment rate was 1.7%, an increase from 1.4% in February 2023
• Of the 14.5 million employed people in May 2024, 1.7 million were underemployed.

In February 2024:

• Of the 14.5 million employed people in May 2024, 1.7 were underemployed
• 889,800 part-time workers were underemployed
• About half of the underemployed part-time workers preferred to work full-time hours (49%).

In February 2024:

• 1.9 million people were not working but wanted to work (potential workers)
• 1.1 million people were available to start work immediately (in the week before the survey interview)
• 82% unemployed people reported difficulty finding work.

• There were 4.2 million retirees. 
• Average age at retirement (of all retirees) was 56.9 years. 
• 130,000 people retired in 2022, with an average age of 64.8 years.
• Average age people intend to retire is 65.4 years. 
• Pension was the main source of income for most retirees. 

Employment in renewable energy activities reports on full time equivalent employment by state and territory and type of renewable energy

Detailed labour force data collected on a quarterly basis

Summary results following the process of rebenchmarking the Labour Force Survey data to the final 2016 Census based Estimated Resident Population