Potential workers

Latest release

Potential labour supply of people who are not working, including wanting to work, availability for work, job attachment and job search.

Reference period

February 2026

Released

31/07/2026

Next release Unknown

Release date and time

31/07/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In February 2026:

1.7 million people were not working but wanted to work (potential workers)
1.1 million people were available to start work, including 640,000 unemployed people

This Potential workers release uses data sourced from the annual Participation, Job Search and Mobility (PJSM) survey. More information from the survey is published in:

Microdata from the PJSM survey for 2015 to 2026 will be released in TableBuilder and DataLab (as a supplementary file to the Longitudinal Labour Force) on 6 August 2026. For more information, refer to Microdata and TableBuilder: Participation, Job Search and Mobility.

Upcoming changes to the Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey

As part of the ABS Labour Force Survey modernisation program (see Modernising the Labour Force Survey), changes have been made to labour supplementary surveys, including Participation, Job Search and Mobility. These changes affect collection timing, reference periods and published outputs. As a result, this was the last Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey conducted in its current form.

Content previously collected through this survey will be incorporated into the new Labour Supplementary Survey, with data compiled and published annually on a calendar-year basis. The first estimates for 2026, based on data collected from August to December 2026, are expected to be released in April 2027. A similar range of data will continue to be available through the new survey outputs.

People who want to work

In February 2026, there were 22.4 million people in the usually resident civilian population who were aged 15 years or over, of whom:

14.5 million were employed
1.7 million were not working but wanted to work (potential workers)
6.2 million did not want to work or were permanently not able to work (not potential workers).

Of the 1.7 million potential workers:

300,000 were attached to a job that they were about to start or were away from a job that they could return to
1.4 million were without a job.

Between February 2025 and February 2026, the number of potential workers without job attachment remained steady at 1.4 million. Over the same period, employment rose from 14.3 to 14.5 million.

Chart 1: Employment and potential workers
	Feb-23 (million)	Feb-24 (million)	Feb-25 (million)	Feb-26 (million)
Employed	13.7	14.0	14.3	14.5
Potential workers with job attachment	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.3
Potential workers without job attachment	1.4	1.6	1.4	1.4
Not potential workers	5.6	5.7	6.0	6.2

Chart 1: Employment and potential workers

["","Feb-23","Feb-24","Feb-25","Feb-26"]

[["Employed","Potential workers with job attachment","Potential workers without job attachment","Not potential workers"],[[13.7],[0.4],[1.4],[5.6]],[[14],[0.3],[1.6],[5.7]],[[14.3],[0.3],[1.4],[6]],[[14.5],[0.3],[1.4],[6.2]]]

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Of the 1.7 million potential workers:

659,900 looked for work
267,000 had a job to go to, or return to (potential workers with job attachment)
736,000 did not look for work.

Over three-quarters of those who wanted to work, but did not look for work, were available to start in the previous week or within the next four weeks.

Chart 2: People who wanted to work
	Unemployed ('000)	Not in the Labour Force ('000)
Had a job to go to, or return to	56.5	211.0
Looked for work, and available to start immediately	583.0
Looked for work, and available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)		60.3
Looked for work, but not available to start within 4 weeks		16.6
Did not look for work, but available to start immediately		435.6
Did not look for work, but available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)		143.8
Did not look for work, not available to start within 4 weeks		156.6

Chart 2: People who wanted to work

["","Unemployed","Not in the Labour Force"]

[["Had a job to go to, or return to","Looked for work, and available to start immediately","Looked for work, and available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)","Looked for work, but not available to start within 4 weeks","Did not look for work, but available to start immediately","Did not look for work, but available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)","Did not look for work, not available to start within 4 weeks"],[[56.5],[583],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null]],[[211],[null],[60.3],[16.6],[435.6],[143.8],[156.6]]]

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Marginal attachment framework

Image

Description

The top level is the civilian population aged 15+ years at 22,412,000. This divides into employed persons with 14,533,000; and not employed persons with 7,879,000. Unemployed persons, including ‘Future starters’ (people who had a job to go to and could have started in the reference week), at 640,000. The labour force total is at 15,173,000. Not employed persons divides into two: First, those who wanted to work, including people who might want to work with 1,663,000. Second, people who did not want to work, including people who are permanently unable to work and those who ‘did not know’ with 6,216,000. ‘Wanted to work’ divides into three: had a job to go to, referring to people who had a job to go to but were not available to start in the reference week, with 210,000; actively looked for work with 716,000; and did not actively look for work with 736,000. ‘Actively looked for work’ divides into three: First, unemployed persons including people who had a job to go to and could have started in the reference week with 640,000. Second, those who were available to start within four weeks, referring to people who were not available to start in the reference week, with 60,000. Third, those who were not available to start within four weeks with 17,000. ‘Did not actively look for work’ divides into two: First, those available to start within four weeks with 579,000. Second, those not available to start within four weeks with 157,000. ‘Available to start within four weeks’ divides into two: ‘Discouraged job seekers’ with 64,000, and ‘other reasons’ with 515,000. The total of ‘Marginally attached to the labour force with 867,000 is made of ‘had a job to go to’, referring to people who had a job to go to but were not available to start in the reference week, ‘Available to start within four weeks’, referring to people who were not available to start in the reference week and those ‘Not available to start within four weeks’. The total of ‘people without marginal attachment to the labour force with 6,373,000 is made up of people who ‘Did not actively look for work’ who are ‘Not available to start within four week and people who ‘did not want to work’. The total of ‘Potential Workers’ with 1,663,00 is made up of people who ‘Wanted to work including ‘Unemployed persons’.

Availability for work

Not all potential workers are available to start work immediately. Of the 1.7 million people in February 2026 who wanted to work:

1.1 million were available to start work in the previous week.
288,500 were available to start work within four weeks (but not last week).
276,400 were not available to start work within four weeks.

Chart 3: People who wanted to work and availability for work
	Unemployed ('000)	Not in the labour force ('000)
Available to start immediately	639.5	458.4
Available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)		288.5
Not available to start within 4 weeks		276.4

Chart 3: People who wanted to work and availability for work

["","Unemployed","Not in the labour force"]

[["Available to start immediately","Available to start within 4 weeks (but not immediately)","Not available to start within 4 weeks"],[[639.5],[null],[null]],[[458.4],[288.5],[276.4]]]

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The main reasons people who wanted to work were not available to start within four weeks were:

Studying, or returning to studies – 43,200 (20%)
Caring for children – 38,900 (18%)
Own long-term health condition or disability – 37,700 (18%)
Own short-term health condition or injury – 18,800 (9%)
Caring for ill or elderly person/relative – 16,200 (8%).

Not looking for work

People who were unavailable for work in the short to medium-term may not begin looking for work until it is closer to the time when they will be able to work. Of those who were not available within four weeks:

61,500 looked for work in the last 12 months
214,900 did not look for work in the last 12 months.

There were 579,400 people who wanted to work, were available to start either immediately or within four weeks, but did not actively look for work. The main reasons they did not actively look for work last week were:

Attending an educational institution – 133,800
Childcare – 105,400.

Chart 4: Main reason people who were available to start work within four weeks were not looking for work
	Males ('000)	Females ('000)
Attending an educational institution	64.3	69.5
Ill health, injury or disability	31.7	35.5
Discouraged jobseekers	28.7	35.5
Other family considerations or caring responsibilities	11.2	29.9
Child care	9.8	95.6

Chart 4: Main reason people who were available to start work within four weeks were not looking for work

["","Males","Females"]

[["Attending an educational institution","Ill health, injury or disability","Discouraged jobseekers","Other family considerations or caring responsibilities","Child care"],[[64.3],[31.7],[28.7],[11.2],[9.8]],[[69.5],[35.5],[35.5],[29.9],[95.6]]]

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People who don't want to work

In February 2026, there were 5.4 million people aged 15 years or over who did not want to work and 759,900 that were permanently unable to work. The main activities of people who did not want to work were:

Retired – 3.3 million (61%)
Attending an educational institution – 564,100 (10%)
Home duties – 521,400 (10%)
Own long-term health condition or disability – 294,400 (5%).

Data downloads