Labour Force, Australia

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

Reference period
August 2025
Released
18/09/2025
Release date and time
18/09/2025 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In trend terms, in August 2025:

  • unemployment rate increased to 4.3%.
  • participation rate remained at 66.9%.
  • employment increased to 14,643,000.
  • employment to population ratio remained at 64.1%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 5.8%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,985 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2025:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.2%.
  • participation rate decreased to 66.8%.
  • employment decreased to 14,626,500.
  • employment to population ratio decreased to 64.0%.
  • underemployment rate decreased to 5.7%.
  • monthly hours worked decreased to 1,977 million.
  • full-time employment decreased by 40,900 to 10,077,300 people.
  • part-time employment increased by 35,500 to 4,549,200 people.
Key statistics - Trend
Jul-25Aug-25Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,624,80014,643,00018,1000.1%241,9001.7%
Unemployed people648,300652,3004,1000.6%40,0006.5%
Unemployment rate4.2%4.3%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.8%5.8%-0.1 ptsna-0.5 ptsna
Participation rate66.9%66.9%0.0 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,984 million1,985 million1 million0.1%34 million1.7%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Jul-25Aug-25Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,631,90014,626,500-5,4000.0%217,2001.5%
Unemployed people648,300647,400-900-0.1%28,1004.5%
Unemployment rate4.2%4.2%0.0 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Underemployment rate5.8%5.7%-0.1 ptsna-0.8 ptsna
Participation rate67.0%66.8%-0.1 ptsna-0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,985 million1,977 million-8 million-0.4%20 million1.0%

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

Quarterly rebenchmarking of labour force statistics

New migrant labour force data

Survey response and timeline

Unemployment

In trend terms, in August 2025:

  • unemployment rate increased to 4.3%.
  • unemployed people increased by 4,100 to 652,300.
  • youth unemployment rate increased to 9.7%.

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, August 2025

Employment

In trend terms, in August 2025, employment increased by 18,100 people (0.1%) to 14,643,000 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, August 2025.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in August 2025:

  • full-time employment increased by 12,100 to 10,101,800 people, and part-time employment increased by 6,000 to 4,541,200 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 31.0%.

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in August 2025, the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.1%.

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, August 2025.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in August 2025, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased to 1,985 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, August 2025.

Participation

In trend terms, in August 2025, the participation rate:

  • remained at 66.9%.
  • remained at 70.7% for men and 63.3% 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, August 2025.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in August 2025:

  • underemployment rate remained at 5.8%.
  • underutilisation rate decreased to 10.0%.

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, August 2025.

States and Territories

August 2025 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,485,9003,813,0003,002,600980,9001,654,200286,000144,500273,60014,643,000
Employed people - monthly change0.0%0.3%0.1%0.2%0.0%0.3%0.2%-0.1%0.1%
Employment to population ratio63.1%64.9%64.3%61.6%65.9%59.0%69.7%68.9%64.1%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts-0.2 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate4.2%4.4%4.2%4.6%4.0%3.7%4.2%3.9%4.3%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.2%6.3%6.0%5.9%5.2%7.3%3.7%5.2%5.8%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts
Participation rate65.8%67.9%67.1%64.6%68.7%61.3%72.8%71.8%66.9%
Participation rate - monthly change-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.2 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts
August 2025 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,463,1003,817,5002,994,300981,3001,639,800286,900144,100271,00014,626,500
Employed people - monthly change-0.9%0.9%-0.1%0.1%-0.9%0.6%0.2%-1.5%0.0%
Employment to population ratio62.7%65.0%64.1%61.6%65.3%59.2%69.5%68.3%64.0%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change-0.7 pts0.4 pts-0.2 pts0.0 pts-0.8 pts0.4 pts0.0 pts-1.1 pts-0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.2%4.4%4.4%4.9%3.8%3.2%4.5%4.7%4.2%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.2 pts0.2 pts0.6 pts-0.3 pts-0.5 pts0.1 pts0.8 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.3%6.1%6.2%5.6%4.7%6.7%4.0%5.0%5.7%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.5 pts0.2 pts-0.2 pts-0.9 pts-0.9 pts0.7 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts
Participation rate65.5%68.0%67.0%64.8%67.9%61.2%72.8%71.6%66.8%
Participation rate - monthly change-0.6 pts0.3 pts-0.1 pts0.4 pts-1.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.6 pts-0.1 pts

Historical charts

Historical charts for employed, unemployed, unemployment rate and participation rate from August 1966 to August 2025

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 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)

See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

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 is currently reviewing the usefulness of the market and non-market sector data in Table 21 of the headline Labour Force release.

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, September 2006 to August 2025

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.

Post release changes

14/10/2025 - Updated labelling for the Unemployment rate graph.

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