Employment and unemployment

In March quarter 2024:

• 1.3 million people (aged 18-75) without a (paid) job wanted a job, with 1.1 million available to start within 4 weeks
• The most common reason women who wanted a job were unavailable to start within 4 weeks was 'Caring for children', while for men it was 'Long-term health condition or disability'
• 2.1 million people without a job did not want a job, with a further 3.4 million either retired or permanently unable to work
• The main reason for not wanting a job was 'No need, satisfied with current arrangements' (41%)

Employment in renewable energy activities reports on full time equivalent employment by state and territory and type of renewable energy

In June 2023:

• There were 7.5 million families, an increase of 1.0 million since June 2013
• 1 in 7 families were one parent families (14.7%)
• There were 1.4 million jobless families (18.9%)
• Of the 6.2 million couple families, 2.4% were same-sex couples

Summary results following the process of rebenchmarking the Labour Force Survey data to the final 2016 Census based Estimated Resident Population

In trend terms, in August 2024:

• unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. 
• participation rate remained at 67.0%.
• employment increased to 14,443,600.
• employment to population ratio remained at 64.2%.
• underemployment rate remained at 6.4%.
• monthly hours worked increased to 1,958 million.

Detailed monthly and quarterly Labour Force Survey data, including hours, regions, families, job search, job duration, casual, industry and occupation

Detailed labour force data collected on a quarterly basis

In  February 2024:

• 1.9 million people were not working but wanted to work 
• Job mobility decreased to 8% for the first time in 3 years
• The annual retrenchment rate was 1.7%, an increase from 1.4% in February 2023
• Of the 14.5 million employed people in May 2024, 1.7 million were underemployed.

In February 2024:

• 1.9 million people were not working but wanted to work (potential workers)
• 1.1 million people were available to start work immediately (in the week before the survey interview)
• 82% unemployed people reported difficulty finding work.

There were 2,430,400 public sector employees in the month of June 2023 comprising:

• 350,300 employees in Commonwealth government (including defence force personnel);
• 1,871,900 in state government; and
• 208,200 in local government.

Total public sector cash wages and salaries in 2022-23 was $214,987.5 million.

• There were 4.2 million retirees. 
• Average age at retirement (of all retirees) was 56.9 years. 
• 130,000 people retired in 2022, with an average age of 64.8 years.
• Average age people intend to retire is 65.4 years. 
• Pension was the main source of income for most retirees. 

In February 2024:

• Of the 14.5 million employed people in May 2024, 1.7 were underemployed
• 889,800 part-time workers were underemployed
• About half of the underemployed part-time workers preferred to work full-time hours (49%).