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
June 2020
Released
16/07/2020

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for June 2020:

  • Unemployment rate increased to 7.4%.
  • Participation rate increased to 64.0%.
  • Employment increased to 12,328,500.
  • Employment to population ratio increased to 59.2%.
  • Underemployment rate decreased to 11.7%.
  • Monthly hours worked increased to 1,665 million hours.
May-20Jun-20Monthly changeYearly change
Seasonally adjusted
Employed people12,117,70012,328,500210,800 (1.7%)-522,300 (-4.1%)
Unemployed people923,000992,30069,300 (7.5%)280,200 (39.3%)
Unemployment rate7.1%7.4%0.4 pts2.2 pts
Underemployment rate13.1%11.7%-1.4 pts3.5 pts
Participation rate62.7%64.0%1.3 pts-2.0 pts
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,600 million1,665 million64 million (4.0%)-100 million (-5.7%)

Estimates of changes 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

Survey response and timeline

The ABS is continuing to take active steps to manage the impacts of COVID-19 on Labour Force statistics. For more information on recent developments, refer to the Rotation group analysis.

The June Labour Force Survey was run in respect of the two weeks from Sunday 31 May to Saturday 13 June, and collected over the three weeks from Sunday 7 June to Saturday 27 June.

The diagram shows the timeline for March to June 2020 of events relating to COVID-19 including changes in government policy such as social distancing, non-essential services shutdown and the Labour Force processes
The following image provides a timeline of events from March to July showing LFS collection periods as well as Government announcements in response to this period. From 21st to 29th of March social distancing rules and additional shutdowns and/or restrictions were implemented including the shutdown of non-essential services beginning 22nd of March. Data was collected for the April LFS reference weeks 29th March to 11th April; collected 5th to 25th April during which the JobKeeper payment was announced 30th

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.

Continued suspension of trend estimates

Given the extent of change in Labour Force time series, the ABS has temporarily suspended trend series and moved to using forward factors for seasonal adjustment. All estimates within the commentary, including information for the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, refer to seasonally adjusted data. For more information, please refer to 'Suspension of trend series and changes to seasonal adjustment during the COVID-19 period'.

Treatment of people on JobKeeper, JobSeeker or stood down

People paid through the JobKeeper wage subsidy, in receipt of JobSeeker payments, or stood down by their employer are classified as follows in the Labour Force Survey. This approach:

  • is consistent with the long-standing concepts and practices used in the Labour Force Survey; and
  • has not resulted in any changes to the Labour Force Survey questionnaire.

The ABS will update this information if new scenarios emerge or the conditions of existing scenarios change over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. People paid through the JobKeeper wage subsidy: employed

The ABS expects that people who are paid through the JobKeeper scheme will answer the questions in a way that results in them being classified as employed, regardless of the hours they work (e.g. even if they are stood down). People paid through JobKeeper may work less hours, the same hours, or more hours, than usual.

Under the JobKeeper program, eligible businesses and not-for-profit organisations affected by COVID-19 can elect to receive a subsidy to support their employment of eligible employees. Some self-employed people are also eligible to receive the JobKeeper payment.

Employers will pay these employees a wage, within their existing employment relationship, supporting an ongoing attachment to a job.

2. People in receipt of the JobSeeker payment: it depends on their labour market activity

People who receive the JobSeeker or other similar government payments are not automatically classified as unemployed (just as those classified as unemployed will not necessarily be in receipt of a government payment) and how they are categorised depends on how they answer questions around labour market activity.

The JobSeeker payment is paid to people who are looking for work or are sick or injured and cannot undertake their usual work or study for a short time, and who meet the eligibility requirements. People can also receive the JobSeeker payment if they have a job, if they meet a low income test.

Recent changes to the JobSeeker program related to COVID-19 also meant that recipients did not have to meet the usual mutual obligation requirements, such as looking for work. Some of these obligations are gradually being reinstated from June onwards, and changes may lead to increases in active job search and an increase in the number of people classified as unemployed in future months.

To be classified as unemployed in Labour Force statistics, a person must:

  • have actively looked for full-time or part-time work in the last four weeks; and
  • be available for work in the reference week.

People who were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then are also classified as unemployed.

3. People not working any hours, including those who were stood down: it depends on their job attachment and pay, and potentially other labour market activity

A person will be classified as employed if they:

  • had taken any kind of paid leave;
  • were away from their job for any reason (e.g. they were stood down), and were paid for some part of the previous 4 weeks (which could include wages subsidised through the JobKeeper scheme); or
  • were away from their job for four weeks or less for any reason, without pay, but believe they still have a job to go back to (e.g. they were stood down, with no pay).

If a person is away from their job for four weeks or more without pay, or they believe they no longer have a job to be absent from, they will be classified as:

  • unemployed - if they have actively looked for work, and are available to start work; or
  • not in the labour force - if they have not looked for work and/or are not available to start work.

There will be a range of ways in which people will have been stood down without work as a result of COVID-19. Some may be stood down with pay, some through paid leave (e.g. long service leave, annual leave, etc) and some without pay. Some people will perceive that they still have a job (but just no hours at the moment), while others will consider they have lost their job. 

These differences are effectively captured using Labour Force Survey questions, which support the ABS to effectively categorise people and produce key measures of the labour market.

People stood down without pay from late March through to early May were away from their job for four weeks or more and therefore were no longer considered employed in May. This explains part of the further fall in employment in May.

New ABS website and changes to Labour Force Survey publications

The ABS will be launching a new website later in 2020. As part of this move to a new website, the Labour Force Survey publications are being redesigned, so that they are simpler, and present data in a way that is easier to find, understand and use.

Labour force data are currently released in three publications:

  • Labour Force, Australia (6202.0) - the headline release
  • Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic delivery (6291.0.55.001) - monthly release of detailed data
  • Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (6291.0.55.003) - quarterly release of detailed data only collected in February, May, August and November.

On this Beta site, and when the new ABS website is launched, labour force data will move to be released in two publications:

  • Labour Force, Australia - which will continue to be the headline release
  • Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - which will combine all spreadsheets and pivot tables currently published in the monthly and quarterly detailed releases

The main Labour Force Survey publication has been redesigned for the new ABS website, with improved navigation, thematic presentation of data, additional graphs and the most sought after statistics, increased range of state and territory indicators, greater visibility of notes on important changes or impacts on the estimates (e.g. resulting from COVID-19), and an improved range of useful explanatory information and resources (in a new 'Methodology page').

The detailed monthly and detailed quarterly labour force survey releases have been combined so that all detailed Labour Force data are available within a single release. The spreadsheets and datacubes within this combined release have been grouped together thematically, so that it is easier to find the data you are looking for. This expanded monthly detailed release will always include the latest monthly and quarterly data, noting that for the 'non-quarter' months, the quarterly spreadsheets and datacubes will have a different reference period. For example, the May issue contains May monthly and May quarterly data, while the June issue will contain June monthly and May quarterly data.

The file names, table names and time series IDs of all the monthly and quarterly time series spreadsheets and datacubes will remain the same.

If you have any questions or feedback on the new approach to release Labour Force Survey data, please contact us at labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

For further information, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

Unemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020:

  • the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 pts to 7.4% (2.2 pts higher than a year ago)
  • unemployed people increased by 69,300 to 992,300 (and increased by 280,200 over the year to June 2020)
  • the youth unemployment rate increased by 0.4 pts to 16.4% (and increased by 4.3 pts over the year to June 2020)

Employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020:

  • employment decreased by 210,800 people (1.7%) to 12,328,500 people
  • over the year to June 2020, employment decreased by 4.1% or 522,300 people

Underpinning this net increase in the number of employed people are extensive flows of people into and out of employment. Around 600,000 people entered employment (i.e. they were employed in June but were not employed in May), while around 400,000 people left employment (i.e. they were employed in May but were not employed in June). This contrasts with the previous month, where around 500,000 people entered employment and around 700,000 people left employment. See the articles Flows into and out of employment and unemployment and People who lost a job or were stood down: Flows analysis.

Full-time and part-time employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020:

  • full-time employment decreased by 38,100 people to 8,489,100 people, and part-time employment increased by 249,000 to 3,590,400 people
  • over the year to June 2020, full-time employment decreased by 306,800 people and part-time employment decreased by 215,500 people

This change led to a decrease in the part-time share of employment over the past 12 months, from 31.6% to 31.1%.

Employment-to-population ratio

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020:

  • the employment-to-population ratio increased by 1.0 pts to 59.2%, and decreased by 3.3 pts from the same time last year

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

Hours worked

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020, monthly hours worked in all jobs:

  • increased by 64 million hours (4.0%) to 1,665 million hours
  • decreased by 5.7% over the year, which is larger than the 4.1% decrease in employed people

See the article Insights into Hours worked for more.

Participation

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020, the participation rate:

  • increased by 1.3 pts to 64.0%, and decreased 2.0 pts over the year to June 2020
  • increased by 1.1 pts for men (to 69.1%) and increased by 1.5 pts for women (to 59.0%)
  • increased by 1.5 pts to 76.6% for 15 to 64 year olds (the working age population), and increased by 3.9 pts to 63.5% for 15 to 24 year olds

Underemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in June 2020:

  • the underemployment rate decreased by 1.4 pts to 11.7% (3.5 pts higher than a year ago)
  • the underutilisation rate decreased by 1.0 pts to 19.1%

States and territories

June 2020, Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed persons3,937,0003,277,2002,406,700817,3001,294,600245,200126,900232,00012,328,500
Employed persons - monthly change2.1%0.9%2.2%1.4%1.7%2.7%-1.9%1.9%1.7%
Employment to population ratio59.3%59.8%58.0%56.3%60.8%55.1%67.6%67.9%59.2%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change1.2 pts0.5 pts1.2 pts0.8 pts1.0 pts1.4 pts-1.3 pts1.2 pts1.0 pts
Unemployment rate6.9%7.5%7.7%8.8%8.7%6.9%5.7%5.1%7.4%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.5 pts0.6 pts-0.1 pts0.9 pts0.6 pts0.6 pts-1.8 pts0.9 pts0.4 pts
Underemployment rate11.3%12.8%11.2%12.3%10.8%12.4%9.9%7.0%11.7%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-2.2 pts-2.4 pts-0.7 pts-0.8 pts-1.3 pts-2.2 pts-0.4 pts1.3 pts-1.4 pts
Participation rate63.7%64.7%62.9%61.8%66.6%59.2%71.6%71.5%64.0%
Participation rate - monthly change1.6 pts0.9 pts1.3 pts1.4 pts1.6 pts1.9 pts-2.8 pts2.0 pts1.3 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.

Managing COVID-19 impacts on the incoming rotation groups

With the suspension of face-to-face interviewing late in March 2020, and given the relative decrease in response in the incoming rotation group in April and May, the ABS boosted the size of sample for the June incoming rotation group. This resulted in an increased response level for the incoming rotation group in June, to around the same level as pre-COVID-19 rotation groups, with overall response remaining high.

The ABS has undertaken detailed sample decomposition analysis for the incoming rotation groups in April, May and June. All rotation groups have been used in the June 2020 Labour Force estimates, with an extra weighting treatment used to account for a small increase in non-response bias.

This weighting treatment will continue to be reviewed each month, as new data becomes available, and will result in some revisions to previous estimates. Revisions to estimates for May are most pronounced for Queensland estimates.

Incoming and outgoing rotation groups

The incoming rotation group in June 2020 had:

  • a higher employment to population ratio than the group it replaced (60.0% in June 2020 compared to 58.5% in May 2020), and was higher than the sample as a whole (59.4%)
  • a higher full-time employment to population ratio than the group it replaced (41.3% in June 2020 compared to 41.2% in May 2020), and was higher than the sample as a whole (40.7%)
  • a higher unemployment rate than the group it replaced (7.9% in June 2020 compared to 6.5% in May 2020), and was higher than the sample as a whole (7.2%)
  • a higher participation rate than the group it replaced (65.1% in June compared to 62.6% in May 2020), and was higher than the sample as a whole (64.0%)

The outgoing rotation group in June 2020, that will be replaced by a new incoming rotation group in July 2020, had:

  • a lower employment to population ratio in June 2020 (58.9%) than the sample as a whole (59.4%)
  • a lower full-time employment to population ratio in June 2020 (39.8%) than the sample as a whole (40.7%)
  • a lower unemployment rate in June 2020 (6.8%) than the sample as a whole (7.2%)
  • a lower participation rate in June 2020 (63.2%) than the sample as a whole (64.0%)

In addition to analysis across the entire sample, the ABS also undertake 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 June 2020, the incoming rotation group in Victoria had a higher unemployment to population ratio than the group it replaced, and had a higher unemployment to population ratio than the average over the matched sample. 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.

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 downloads

Labour Force Survey results are released in two stages, with additional spreadsheets published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release. See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

Labour force status

Table 1. Labour force status by Sex, Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 4. Labour force status by Sex, New South Wales - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 5. Labour force status by Sex, Victoria - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 6. Labour force status by Sex, Queensland - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 7. Labour force status by Sex, South Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 8. Labour force status by Sex, Western Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 9. Labour force status by Sex, Tasmania - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 10. Labour force status by Sex, Northern Territory - Trend and Original

Table 10a. Labour force status by Sex, Northern Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 11. Labour force status by Sex, Australian Capital Territory - Trend and Original

Table 11a. Labour force status by Sex, Australian Capital Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 12. Labour force status by Sex, State and Territory - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 12a. Labour force status by Sex, Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 13. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 15. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by Educational attendance (full-time) and Sex

Table 16. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by State, Territory and Educational attendance (full-time)

Table 17. Labour force status for 15-19 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 18. Labour force status for 15-64 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Hours worked

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

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

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

Underemployment and underutilisation

Table 22. Underutilised persons by Age and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 23. Underutilised persons by State and Territory and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 23a. Underutilised persons by Territory and Sex - Seasonally adjusted

Table 24. Underutilised persons by Age and Sex (expanded analytical series)

Table 25. Underutilised persons by State, Territory and Sex (expanded analytical series)

Flows into and out of employment

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, February 1991 onwards

All time series spreadsheets

All Time Series Spreadsheets

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