MEDIA RELEASE
6 December 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	155/2011

1.7 million Australians over the age of 18 years wanted to contribute more to the labour force but could not for a variety of reasons, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

At June 2011, the majority (1.4 million) of these people were not employed but wanted a job. 273,500 Australians usually worked fewer than 16 hours a week and wanted to work more hours.

Just over a third of people (633,800) who wanted more work were looking for a job or a job with more hours. The other people were either not available (305,600) or available but not actively looking for a job or more hours (776,500).

There were 454,000 women not in the labour force who wanted a job and were available to take up work but were not looking. Of these women, 115,000 were not looking due to caring for children. The most common reason was that they preferred to look after their children (42%), followed by their children were too young for childcare (23%) and no available childcare (15%).

Further details can be found in Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Australia, July 2010 to June 2011 (cat. no. 6239.0).

Media Note:
When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.