Employment and unemployment

In 2024-25:

• 1.2 million people (aged 18-75) without a (paid) job wanted a job, with 1.1 million available to either start immediately or 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 (aged 18 to 75) without a job did not want a job, with a further 1.8 million either retired or permanently unable to work.
• The main reason for not wanting a job was 'No need, satisfied with current arrangements' (38%).

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

In June 2025:

• There were 7.7 million families, an increase of over 1.0 million since June 2015.
• There were 1.4 million jobless families, which represents 18.5% of all families.
• 271,000 one parent families were jobless.
• Almost three-quarters (73%) of the 2.2 million couple families with children aged 0-14 years had two employed parents.

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

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 trend terms, in October 2025:

• unemployment rate remained at 4.4%.
• participation rate increased to 67.0%.
• employment increased to 14,678,400.
• employment to population ratio remained at 64.0%.
• underemployment rate remained at 5.8%.
• monthly hours worked increased to 1,993 million.

In February 2025:

• 1.7 million people were not working but wanted to work
• the job mobility rate was 7.7%, a decrease from February 2024 (8.0%)
• the annual retrenchment rate was 1.9%, an increase from 1.7% in February 2024
• of the 14.7 million employed people (May 2025), 1.3 million preferred to work more hours

In February 2025:

• 1.7 million people were not working but wanted to work (potential workers)
• 1.1 million people were available to start work, including 600,000 unemployed people

There were 2,597,300 public sector employee jobs in the month of June 2025 comprising:

• 385,900 employee jobs in Commonwealth government (including defence force personnel);
• 1,993,400 in State government; and
• 218,000 in Local government.

Total public sector employee jobs increased 3.3% between June 2024 and June 2025.

Total public sector cash wages and salaries increased 7.6% in 2024-25 to $249,513.0 million.

In 2024-25:

• 156,000 people aged 45 years and over retired, with an average age of 63.8 years.
• There were a total of 4.5 million people aged 45 years and over who were retired (retirees).
• The average age at retirement of all retirees was 57.3 years.
• The average age people aged 45 years and over intend to retire is 65.6 years, a slight increase on 2022-23 (65.4 years).
• Government pension remained the most common main source of income for retirees.

In February 2025:

• 818,900 part-time workers preferred to work more hours, with almost half preferring to work full-time (46%)
• Of the 14.7 million employed people in May 2025, 1.3 million preferred (and were available) to work more hours