Labour Force, Australia

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

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Reference period
December 2021
Released
20/01/2022
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Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for December 2021:

  • Unemployment rate decreased to 4.2%.
  • Participation rate remained at 66.1%.
  • Employment increased to 13,242,000.
  • Employment to population ratio increased to 63.3%.
  • Underemployment rate decreased to 6.6%.
  • Monthly hours worked increased by 18 million hours.
Nov-2021Dec-2021Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
Employed people13,177,30013,242,00064,8000.5%375,9002.9%
Unemployed people636,700574,400-62,200-9.8%-331,500-36.6%
Unemployment rate4.6%4.2%-0.5 ptsna-2.4 ptsna
Underemployment rate7.5%6.6%-0.8 ptsna-1.9 ptsna
Participation rate66.1%66.1%0.0 ptsna0.0 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,801 million 1,819 million18 million1.0%65 million3.7%

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.

Survey impacts and changes

Hours worked - insights and additional data

The ABS is continuing to publish additional insights into hours worked each month. The ABS is also continuing to include data cubes EM2a and EM2b in this release.

These two data cubes are usually only released in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, but will continue to be released in the headline release over the coming months, to enable more detailed analysis of changes in hours worked and the reasons that people are working reduced or no hours. 

People outside of employment with job attachment

The October and November releases included detailed insights into the large number of people who were not employed but who indicated they were attached to a job. Most of these people returned into employment between October and November.

In December, the number of people who were not employed with job attachment (247,100 people) was only slightly elevated compared to the most recent pre-pandemic December (December 2019, when it was 208,800 people).

Seasonal adjustment and trend estimates

In the April 2020 Labour Force release, the ABS advised that the method used to produce seasonally adjusted estimates would be changed from the ‘concurrent’ method to the ‘forward factors’ method, during the COVID-19 period. The forward factors approach is better suited to managing large movements at the end point of series and ensures that large movements do not have a disproportionate influence on the seasonal factors.

Given the large movements in the labour market during the COVID-19 period and the continuing use of a forward factors approach to seasonal adjustment, the ABS undertook an extensive annual review of its seasonally adjusted Labour Force series, prior to the release of April 2021 estimates.

Through this process static forward factors have been calculated for the next 12 months taking effect from the April 2021 release (and the release of May 2021 Labour Force, for the quarterly series).

Survey response and timeline

The December Labour Force Survey was run in respect of the two weeks from Sunday 28 November to Saturday 11 December, and collected over the period from Sunday 5 December to Thursday 23 December.

The ABS would like to thank Australians for their continued support in responding to our surveys during such a difficult time, given how critically important this information is.

Reference and Enumeration Dates
PublicationStart of Reference WeekEnd of Reference WeekStart of EnumerationEnd of Enumeration
November 202131st October 202113th November 20217th November 202127th November 2021
December 202128th November 202111th December 20215th December 202123rd December 2021
January 20222nd January 202215th January 20229th January 202229th January 2022
February 202230th January 202212th February 20226th February 202226th February 2022
March 202227th February 202212th March 20226th March 202226th March 2022
April 20223rd April 202216th April 202210th April 202230th April 2022

Articles and other information

This months Labour Force release includes:

For a list of previously published LFS articles, see the Article archive.

Additional spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this release, while longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab, on the 28 January 2022 (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia).

Unemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021:

  • The unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 pts to 4.2%
  • The unemployment rate was 1.1 pts below March 2020
  • Unemployed people decreased by 62,200 to 574,400 
  • Unemployed people was 148,800 lower than March 2020
  • The youth unemployment rate decreased by 1.5 pts to 9.4%
  • The youth unemployment rate was 2.2 pts lower than March 2020

Employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021:

  • Employment increased by 64,800 people (0.5%) to 13,242,000 people
  • Employment was 246,600 people (1.9%) higher than March 2020

 

Flows into and out of employment

Flows into and out of employment are extensive and are based on the net matched sample of original employment growth between two consecutive months (around 80% of the sample). The (net) sum of the inflows and outflows does not necessarily equal the 'net' employment growth.

For December 2021 the net change in the number of employed people is the result of around 533,000 people entered employment (i.e. they were not employed in November but were employed in December), while around 409,000 people left employment (i.e. they were employed in November but were not employed in December). This contrasts with November 2021 where around 835,000 people entered employment and around 401,000 people left employment.

Note: As the inflows and outflows analysis is based on the matched sample (around 80% of the sample), and the original employment growth is based on the entire sample and the latest months weight, the (net) sum of the inflows and outflows does not necessarily equal the 'net' employment growth.

The following diagram shows the proportion of people moving between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force between November and December (based on the matched sample). It shows that:

  • 97% of people employed in November were also employed in December (with 1% moving to unemployment and 3% to not in the labour force)
  • 51% of people unemployed in November were also unemployed in December (with 29% moving to employment and 20% to not in the labour force)
  • 92% of people not in the labour force in November were also not in the labour force in December (with 5% moving to employment and 3% to unemployment)


 

Flows in labour force status, November to December

This diagram shows the proportion of people moving between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force between October and November (based on the matched sample).
This diagram shows the proportion of people moving between employment, unemployment and not in the labour force between November and December (based on the matched sample). It shows that: - 97% of people employed in November were also employed in December (with 1% moving to unemployment and 3% to not in the labour force) - 51% of people unemployed in November were also unemployed in December (with 29% moving to employment and 20% to not in the labour force) - 92% of people not in the labour force in November were also not in the labour force in December (with 5% moving to employment and 3% to unemployment)

Full-time and part-time employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021:

  • Full-time employment increased by 41,500 to 9,094,400 people, and part-time employment increased by 23,300 to 4,147,700 people
  • The part-time share of employment was 31.3%, 0.5 pts lower than in March 2020

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021, the employment-to-population ratio:

  • Increased by 0.3 pts to 63.3%
  • Higher than March 2020 by 1.0 pts

The employment-to-population ratio provides a measure of employment relative to the size of the population.

Hours worked

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021, monthly hours worked in all jobs:

  • ​​​​​Increased by 18.2 million hours (1.0%) to 1,819 million hours
  • Increased by 53.9 million hours (3.1%) from March 2020 

See the article Insights into hours worked for more.

Participation

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021, the participation rate:

  • Remained at 66.1%

  • Increased by 0.1 pts for men to 70.8% and decreased by 0.1 pts to 61.5% for women

  • Higher than March 2020 by 0.2 pts

Underemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in December 2021:

  • The underemployment rate decreased by 0.8 pts to 6.6%
  • The underemployment rate was 2.2 pts lower than March 2020 
  • The underutilisation rate decreased by 1.3 pts to 10.8%

States and territories

December 2021, Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,160,0003,471,3002,666,600882,6001,443,200260,500131,500227,10013,242,000
Employed people - monthly change0.8%0.7%0.2%-0.2%-0.1%-0.4%1.3%-0.3%0.5%
Employment to population ratio62.4%64.1%63.1%60.4%66.7%58.1%69.4%66.1%63.3%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.5 pts0.5 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.2 pts0.9 pts-0.2 pts0.3 pts
Unemployment rate4.0%4.2%4.7%3.9%3.4%3.9%4.2%4.5%4.2%
Unemployment rate - monthly change-0.6 pts-0.5 pts-0.1 pts-0.7 pts-0.4 pts-1.2 pts-0.2 pts0.7 pts-0.5 pts
Underemployment rate6.3%6.4%7.6%8.6%6.4%8.1%5.9%5.0%6.6%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-1.1 pts-0.9 pts-0.3 pts0.5 pts-0.1 pts-0.3 pts0.5 pts-2.2 pts-0.8 pts
Participation rate65.0%66.9%66.2%62.9%69.0%60.4%72.4%69.2%66.1%
Participation rate - monthly change0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts-0.6 pts-0.3 pts-1.0 pts0.8 pts0.3 pts0.0 pts

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

The Labour Force Survey sample can be thought of as comprising eight sub-samples (rotation groups), with each sub-sample remaining in the survey for eight months, and one group "rotating out" each month and being replaced by a new group "rotating in". As seven-eighths of the sample are common from one month to the next, changes in the estimates reflect real changes in the labour market, rather than changes in the sample. The replacement sample is generally selected from the same geographic areas as the outgoing one, as part of a representative sampling approach.

The sample comprises three components:

  • the matched common sample (people who responded in both the current month and previous month)
  • the unmatched common sample (people who responded in the current month but who did not respond in the previous month, or vice versa)
  • the incoming rotation group (replacing people who rotated out)

The matched common sample describes the change observed for the same respondents in the current and previous month, while the other two components reflect differences between the aggregate labour force status of different groups of people.

While the rotation groups are designed to be representative of the population, the outgoing and incoming rotation groups will almost always have somewhat different characteristics, as they reflect different households and people. The design of the survey, including the weighting and estimation processes, ensures that these differences are generally relatively minor and do not affect the representativeness of the survey and its estimates. Monthly estimates are designed to be representative, regardless of the relative contribution of the three components of the sample.

The contributions of the three sample components to the original estimates of employed, unemployed and not in the labour force are in the Contribution from sample components to estimates spreadsheet.

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

Incoming and outgoing rotation groups
November outgoing rotation groupDecember incoming rotation groupDecember outgoing rotation groupDecember estimate (Original)
Employment to population ratio62.7%65.1%64.2%64.0%
Full-time employment to population ratio42.3%44.7%44.5%44.2%
Unemployment rate4.3%3.9%3.6%4.0%
Participation rate65.4%67.7%66.6%66.6%

States and territories

In addition to analysis across the entire sample, the ABS also undertakes similar analysis for the responding sample in each state and territory each month, and highlights where there is a notable change for users to be aware of. For example, in December 2021, the incoming rotation groups in New South Wales and Victoria had a higher employment-to-population ratio and population share than the groups they replaced. These ratios of the incoming rotation groups in New South Wales and Victoria were also higher than most other rotation groups. As with any notable month-to-month movement of this nature in state and territory estimates, the ABS recommends exercising a degree of caution in interpreting short-term changes.

As for its reporting for the entire sample, where the ABS has not highlighted a notable incoming rotation group effect, any larger changes should therefore be considered to reflect a broader change across the sample.

Managing COVID-19 impacts on incoming rotation groups

In response to COVID-19 and the suspension of face-to-face interviewing, the ABS boosted the size of sample for the incoming rotation groups from June to December 2020 to ensure response level were around the same as pre-COVID-19 rotation groups. This ensured a comparable level of fully responding households to the pre-COVID period.

In response to the data collection challenges associated with the COVID-19 Delta strain, the ABS boosted the size of the sample for the incoming rotation group in New South Wales in September 2021, and in New South Wales and Victoria in October, November and December 2021. As with earlier in the pandemic, this has ensured that survey response has remained at a similar level to the pre-COVID period.

The incoming rotation group for January 2022 will also be boosted to ensure a comparable level of responding households.

Between April and September 2020, and in September and October 2021, additional weighting treatments were used to effectively account for a slightly higher level of non-response. No such treatment has been required since October 2021.

Comparability with seasonally adjusted data

The gross flows and rotation group data are in original terms only, and are included to provide additional information on the month-to-month movements. They have a considerable level of inherent sampling variability, which is specifically adjusted for in the seasonally adjusted series.

While trend data usually provides the best measure of the underlying behaviour of the labour market, in times of large changes in the labour market, seasonally adjusted data provides a better estimate of the most recent months. The ABS has temporarily suspended the trend series until labour market indicators become more stable, see  Suspension of trend series and changes to seasonal adjustment during the COVID-19 period.

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data files
Download xlsx [42.94 KB]

Data downloads

Changes to Excel file format on the ABS website

In line with updating to more recent technology formats, the ABS will progressively transition to releasing Excel files in the .XLSX format. This means that timeseries spreadsheets in the suite of labour statistics releases will be progressively upgraded from .XLS files to .XLSX files.

While this change will improve usability, it may also require changes to automated macros or similar programs that users may have in place that call on the current file extension format.

Changes will be reflected in other labour statistics from the following dates:

  • Average Weekly Earnings, to be released on 24 February 2022
  • Labour Account, to be released on 9 March 2022
  • Industrial Disputes, to be released on 10 March 2022

Some labour statistics, such as Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia, already publish Excel data in .XLSX format. No changes will be required for those releases.

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

Hours worked

Data files

  • Table 19. Monthly hours worked in all jobs by Employed full-time, part-time and Sex and by State and Territory - Trend and Seasonally adjusted

    Download xlsx [500.95 KB]

  • Table 19a. Monthly hours worked in all jobs by Employed full-time, part-time and Sex and Territory - Seasonally adjusted

    Download xlsx [86.35 KB]

  • Table 21. Quarterly hours worked in all jobs by Market and Non-market sector - Seasonally adjusted

    Download xlsx [82.51 KB]

  • EM2a - Employed persons who worked fewer hours than usual by hours actually worked in all jobs and sex, January 1991 onwards (pivot table)

    Download xlsx [20.11 MB]

  • EM2b - Employed persons who worked fewer hours than usual by hours actually worked in all jobs, state and territory, January 1991 onwards (pivot table)

    Download xlsx [9.32 MB]

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, February 1991 onwards

Data files
Download xlsx [96.82 MB]

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets

Data files
Download zip [37.53 MB]


 

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 and onwards

Article archive

Understanding the labour force

Understanding full-time and part-time work (January 2021)

Understanding differences between Labour Force employment statistics and Weekly Payroll Jobs (April 2020)

Classifying people during the COVID-19 period (March 2020)

Labour Force Explained (September 2017)

Understanding the Australian labour force using ABS statistics (December 2013)

Understanding full-time / part-time status in the Labour Force Survey (September 2013)

Employment level estimates versus employment to population ratio explained (January 2012)

Employment and jobs

Charts on casual employment, occupation and industry (November 2021)

Charts on casual employment, occupation and industry (August 2021)

Charts on casual employment, occupation and industry (May 2021)

Changing female employment over time (February 2021)

Insights into casual employment, occupation and industry (November 2020)

Strong employment growth for non-employees (August 2020)

State and territory employment and hours worked (August 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An International Perspective (August 2020)

Flows into and out of employment and unemployment (June 2020)

Insights into industry and occupation (May 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An international perspective (May 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An international perspective (April 2020)

People moving into or out of employment or unemployment every month (March 2020)

How many people work one hour a week (January 2019)

Leave entitlements (November 2015)

Duration of employment (November 2015)

Sector of main job (November 2015)

Estimating jobs in the Australian labour market (February 2013)

Employment in mining in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia (May 2012)

Unemployment and underemployment

Insights into job attachment during the pandemic (November 2021)

Insights into job attachment during the pandemic (October 2021)

Underemployment: Reduced hours or prefers more hours (December 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An International Perspective (August 2020)

Understanding unemployment and the loss of work during the COVID-19 period: An Australian and international perspective (July 2020)

Flows into and out of employment and unemployment (June 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An International Perspective (June 2020)

People who lost a job or were stood down: flows analysis (May 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An international perspective (May 2020)

Hours not worked - Hours-based measures of unemployment and underemployment (May 2020)

People who lost a job or were stood down: Flows analysis (April 2020)

Reasons people are not in the labour force (April 2020)

Employment and unemployment: An international perspective (April 2020)

Underemployment in Australia (September 2018)

Spotlight on underemployment (November 2016)

Measures of underemployment and underutilisation (November 2015)

Full-time and part-time job search (November 2015)

Hours-based measures of unemployment and underemployment (November 2015)

Retrenchment (November 2015)

Did you know - Underemployment (June 2013)

Exploring labour force data on joblessness (February 2012)

Hours worked

Insights into hours worked (November 2021)

Insights into hours worked (October 2021)

Insights into hours worked (September 2021)

Insights into hours worked (August 2021)

Insights into hours worked (July 2021)

Insights into hours worked (June 2021)

Insights into hours worked (May 2021)

Insights into hours worked (April 2021)

Insights into hours worked (March 2021)

How many people work one hour a week? (March 2021)

Insights into hours worked (February 2021)

Insights into hours worked (January 2021)

Insights into hours worked (December 2020)

Insights into hours worked (November 2020)

Insights into hours worked (October 2020)

Insights into hours worked (September 2020)

Insights into hours worked (August 2020)

State and territory employment and hours worked (August 2020)

Insights into hours worked (July 2020)

Insights into hours worked (June 2020)

Hours not worked - Hours-based measures of unemployment and underemployment (May 2020)

Insights into hours worked (May 2020)

People working fewer hours (April 2020)

Insights into hours worked (April 2020)

Reasons for working fewer hours (March 2020)

Insights into hours worked (March 2020)

Insights into detailed Labour Force Survey hours worked data (February 2020)

Revisions to monthly hours worked in all jobs (July 2016)

Regional estimates

Impacts on the Australian labour market: A regional perspective (April 2020)

Advice on reporting regional labour force data (December 2017)

Analysis of changes to Labour Force regional estimates (February 2014)

LFS content and output

ABS Labour Statistics: A broad range of information (July 2019)

500th issue of 6202.0 (January 2018)

Labour Force Survey pivot tables (August 2017)

Expanded education data from the Labour Force Survey (August 2016)

Change to Status in Employment output (July 2015)

Forthcoming improvements to the content of the Labour Force and Labour Supplementary Surveys (January 2013)

Upcoming changes to the Labour Force Survey (July 2012)

Labour Household Surveys content review (June 2012)

Methodology

Improvement to the trending method for Labour Force rates and ratios (October 2019)

Assessing volatility in Labour Force statistics (July 2019)

On-line collection in the Labour Force Survey (April 2019)

Annual seasonal re-analysis (March 2019)

Improvements to trend estimation (March 2018)

Major re-benchmarking of Labour Force series (October 2017)

Changes to filter lengths used in labour statistics (February 2017)

Update on recommendation 7 from the independent technical review (November 2015)

Progress with recommendations from the independent technical review (July 2015)

Update on recommendations 10 and 11 from the independent technical review (June 2015)

Update on recommendation 7 from the independent technical review (May 2015)

Update on recommendations from the independent technical review (March 2015)

Rebenchmarking Labour Force estimates (February 2015)

Independent technical review into the Labour Force Survey (November 2014)

Removing the effect of supplementary surveys from seasonally adjusted estimates (October 2014)

Rebenchmarking Labour Force estimates to the 2011 Census (January 2014)

New Labour Force sample design (May 2013)

Transition to online collection of the Labour Force survey (April 2013)

Rebenchmarking of Labour Force series (November 2012)

Population benchmarks and Labour Force Survey (April 2012)

Historical revisions (February 2011)

Impact of the floods on the Labour Force Survey (January 2011)

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

Post release changes

02/02/2021 - following the release on 20/01/2021, there has been an update to the participation section- Participation rate for women was amended from 61.3% to 61.5%. No other data has been affected. 
 

Methodology

Labour Force, Australia methodology, December 2021

Articles

Media releases