Labour Force, Australia

Latest release

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

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Reference period
July 2026
Released
20/08/2026
  • Next Release 24/09/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, August 2026
  • Next Release 15/10/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, September 2026
  • Next Release 19/11/2026
    Labour Force, Australia, October 2026
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Release date and time
20/08/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms, in July 2026:

  • the employment-to-population ratio decreased 0.2ppt to 63.9%.
  • the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

In trend terms, in July 2026:

  • the employment-to-population ratio remained at 63.9%.
  • the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Main features

Update on Labour Force Modernisation and future release plans

The ABS has published the article Update on the Labour Force Modernisation and future release plans alongside this release. This article provides an update on Modernising the Labour Force Survey, and outlines future Labour Force output plans.

Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Jun-26Jul-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,823,10014,807,200-15,800-0.1%191,9001.3%
Employment to population ratio64.0%63.9%-0.2 ptsna-0.3 ptsna
Unemployed people687,400691,5004,2000.6%45,1007.0%
Unemployment rate4.4%4.5%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.4%6.4%-0.1 ptsna0.5 ptsna
Participation rate67.0%66.9%-0.2 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,010 million1,998 million-12 million-0.6%4 million0.2%
Key statistics - Trend
Jun-26Jul-26Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,794,80014,824,20029,3000.2%235,0001.6%
Employment to population ratio63.9%63.9%0.0 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Unemployed people686,900691,3004,4000.6%43,1006.7%
Unemployment rate4.4%4.5%0.0 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.3%6.4%0.0 ptsna0.5 ptsna
Participation rate66.9%66.9%0.1 ptsna0.0 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs2,005 million2,004 million-1 million-0.1%21 million1.1%

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

Weighting adjustments in New South Wales and Victoria

Rotation group analysis

Updated hours worked benchmarks

Survey dates

Removal of supplementary survey regressors

Employment

In July 2026, employment decreased by 15,800 people (-0.1%) to 14,807,200 people in seasonally adjusted terms. Full-time employment increased by 16,300 to 10,210,500 people, and part-time employment decreased by 32,200 to 4,596,700 people.

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, July 2026.

Employment-to-population ratio

In July 2026, the employment-to-population ratio fell by 0.2ppt to 63.9% in seasonally adjusted terms. The employment-to-population ratio decreased by 0.2ppt to 67.5% for males, and decreased by 0.1ppt to 60.4% for females.

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, July 2026.

Unemployment

In July 2026, the unemployment rate increased marginally to 4.5% in seasonally adjusted terms, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 4,200 to 691,500 people. The unemployment rate remained at 4.5% for males and 4.4% for females. The youth unemployment rate decreased by 0.3ppt to 10.4%.

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, July 2026.

Underemployment

In July 2026, the underemployment rate fell by 0.1ppt to 6.4% and the underutilisation rate fell by 0.1ppt to 10.8% in seasonally adjusted terms.

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, July 2026.

Participation

In July 2026, the participation rate fell 0.2ppt to 66.9% in seasonally adjusted terms. The participation rate fell by 0.2ppt to 70.7% for males and fell by 0.1ppt to 63.2% for females.

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, July 2026.

Hours worked

In July 2026, monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 12.5 million hours to 1,998 million hours in seasonally adjusted terms.

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, July 2026.

In seasonally adjusted terms, monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 0.6%, which was larger than the 0.1% fall in employment.

States and Territories

July 2026 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaAustralia
Employed people4,562,2003,817,4003,049,900989,9001,668,400283,80014,807,200
Employed people - monthly change-0.1%0.1%0.3%0.0%-1.4%0.5%-0.1%
Employment to population ratio63.4%64.1%64.2%61.5%65.0%58.0%63.9%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change-0.2 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-1.1 pts0.3 pts-0.2 pts
Unemployment rate4.2%5.1%4.2%4.1%4.4%5.1%4.5%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.3 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts-0.2 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.4%7.1%7.0%6.8%5.6%7.1%6.4%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-0.8 pts-0.1 pts0.5 pts0.1 pts-0.2 pts0.4 pts-0.1 pts
Participation rate66.2%67.5%67.0%64.1%68.0%61.1%66.9%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.2 pts-1.0 pts0.4 pts-0.2 pts

Seasonally adjusted estimates for NT and ACT are not available due to having no seasonality. The ABS recommends using trend data.

July 2026 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,564,8003,817,6003,052,100989,0001,682,900282,500147,500277,80014,824,200
Employed people - monthly change0.2%0.2%0.2%0.1%0.0%0.3%0.0%0.0%0.2%
Employment to population ratio63.4%64.1%64.2%61.4%65.6%57.7%69.3%69.1%63.9%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate4.2%5.1%4.2%4.2%4.3%5.1%4.7%4.0%4.5%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.7%7.0%6.5%6.7%5.7%7.0%4.8%6.1%6.4%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.2%67.5%67.1%64.1%68.5%60.8%72.7%72.0%66.9%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.2 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts

Data downloads

Labour Force status

Data files

Modelled labour market regions (SA4)

MLF1. Modelled estimates of Labour force status, by SA4 (ASGS), Age and Sex (pivot table)

Data files
Download xlsx [19.73 MB]

Hours worked

Data files

Status in employment

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

  • Table X28. Underutilised persons by State and Territory and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

    Download xlsx [6.39 MB]

  • Table X29. Underutilised persons by Age and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

    Download xlsx [5.49 MB]

Table name concordance

This table provides a concordance between the Labour Force data downloads prior to Labour Force Modernisation and the current format. For further details on these changes, see Upcoming changes to Labour Force Survey outputs.

Labour Force Australia – Table name concordance (transition period)

Data files
Download xlsx [13 KB]

All spreadsheets

All spreadsheets

Data files
Download zip [390.93 MB]

Data Explorer datasets

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. 

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 underemployment and underutilisation - Number of underutilised persons by region, age and sex, monthly, February 1978 onwards.

Labour Force: Employed persons by Hours worked in all jobs and Sex - Number of people employed and actual weekly hours worked, by detailed hours groups, monthly, January 1991 onwards.

Labour Force: Status in employment of main job and Sex - Number of people employed, by status in employment, monthly, January 1991 onwards.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Article archive

Understanding the labour force

Employment and jobs

Unemployment and underemployment

Hours worked

Regional estimates

LFS content and output

Methodology

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

Methodology

Labour Force, Australia methodology, July 2026

Articles

Media releases