Potential labour supply of people who are not working, including wanting to work, availability for work, marginal attachment and job search.
In February 2021 there were 20.7 million people in the usually resident civilian population who were 15 years or over, of whom:
Prior to February 2021, information was published in Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia. From February 2021, statistics are now published in three topic-based releases - this Potential workers release, as well as:
Potential worker, job mobility and underemployment data for 2015 to 2021 are also available in TableBuilder. TableBuilder enables the creation of customised tables and graphs.
In February 2021, there were 20.7 million people in the usually resident civilian population who were 15 years or over, of whom:
Of the 2.2 million people who wanted to work:
Over three-quarters of those who wanted to work, but did not look for work, were available to start immediately or within 4 weeks.
The number of unemployed people is an important measure for monitoring the labour market. Unemployment is necessarily strictly defined to reflect an economic measure of the immediately active and available labour supply, at a specific point in time.
However, there are additional ways to look at the potential workforce - either as potential workers now or potential workers in the short to medium-term. Note that in this context, the potential workforce reflects people within the usually resident population in Australia in February 2021, and does not account for potential workers from other countries (including former or future residents of Australia, who may work in the Australian labour market in the future).
In February 2021, there were 2.2 million people who did not work and wanted to work. This was 14.4% of the 15.1 million people in the 'potential labour force' (i.e. those who were either employed or were a potential worker). Of these, 808,000 were classified as unemployed.
Not everyone who wants to work is available to work. Of the 2.2 million people in February 2021 who wanted to work:
People who are not going to be available for work in the short to medium-term may not begin looking for work until closer to when they will be able to work. Of those who were not available within 4 weeks:
There were many reasons why people were not available to work. The main reasons reported by people who wanted to work but were not available to work within 4 weeks were:
There were 862,200 people who wanted to work, were available to start either immediately or within 4 weeks, but did not actively look for work. The main reasons they did not actively look for work were:
Of the 808,000 unemployed people in February 2021, 88% reported having difficulty finding work.
The main difficulty for job seekers in February 2021 was 'too many applicants for available jobs'.
Reasons for difficulty finding work have changed somewhat in recent years, with an increase since February 2016 in personal factors such as "Insufficient work experience" and "Own ill health or disability", and a decrease in job related factors such as "No vacancies at all" and "Unsuitable hours".
In February 2021, there were 5.5 million people aged 15 years or over who did not want to work, or were permanently unable to work. The main activities of people who did not want to work were:
There were 686,000 people who were permanently unable to work.
Note that the table numbers below are not in sequential order. The numbers relate to the full suite of 22 tables that are published from the Participation, Job Search and Mobility (PJSM) survey. These are spread across the three topic based releases: Job mobility, Potential workers, and Underemployed workers. All 22 tables are available from the parent PJSM topic page.
This release uses ABS catalogue number 6228.0*.
Data from this release was previously published in:
* Note: Catalogue number 6228.0 was previously used for Survey of Persons Registered with the CES as Unemployed (Preliminary), Mar 1977.
** Note: Catalogue number 6226.0 was previously used for School Leavers, 1970 to 1974: their Employment Status and Education Experience, May 1975.
6 September 2021:
