Labour Force, Australia

Latest release

Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey

Reference period
January 2025
Released
20/02/2025
  • Next Release 20/03/2025
    Labour Force, Australia, February 2025
  • Next Release 17/04/2025
    Labour Force, Australia, March 2025
  • Next Release 15/05/2025
    Labour Force, Australia, April 2025
  • View all releases

Key statistics

In trend terms, in January 2025:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.0%. 
  • participation rate remained at 67.2%.
  • employment increased to 14,616,400. 
  • employment to population ratio increased to 64.5%.
  • underemployment remained at 6.0%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,976 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in January 2025:

  • unemployment rate increased to 4.1%.
  • participation rate increased to 67.3%.
  • employment increased to 14,634,300.
  • employment to population ratio increased to 64.6%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 6.0%.
  • monthly hours worked decreased to 1,971 million.
  • full-time employment increased by 54,100 to 10,092,800 people.
  • part-time employment decreased by 10,100 to 4,541,500 people.
Key statistics - Trend
Dec-24Jan-25Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,582,70014,616,40033,7000.2%424,1003.0%
Unemployed people614,600615,1005000.1%37,3006.5%
Unemployment rate4.0%4.0%0.0 ptsna0.1 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.0%6.0%0.0 ptsna-0.6 ptsna
Participation rate67.2%67.2%0.0 ptsna0.5 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,974 million1,976 million2 million0.1%53 million2.8%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Dec-24Jan-25Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,590,30014,634,30044,0000.3%498,3003.5%
Unemployed people604,100627,50023,4003.9%25,1004.2%
Unemployment rate4.0%4.1%0.1 ptsna0.0 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.0%6.0%0.0 ptsna-0.7 ptsna
Participation rate67.2%67.3%0.2 ptsna0.8 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,979 million1,971 million-7 million-0.4%109 million5.9%

Estimates of changes throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded level estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded level estimates.

For definitions of labour statistics used in this publication, please refer to Glossary of Labour Force, Australia methodology.

Survey impacts and changes

Articles

The ABS has included Seasonal adjustment and changing seasonality in Labour Force statistics, January 2025 and Insights into job attachment, January 2025, given the relevance to this month's statistics and interest in the ABS providing an update to insights into these statistics.

For a list of previously published LFS articles, see the Article archive.

Survey response and timeline

Upcoming release of Labour Force Survey TableBuilder product

Extending Enhanced Regional Labour Market Data back to 2012

Unemployment

In trend terms, in January 2025:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.0%.
  • unemployed people increased by 500 to 615,100. 
  • youth unemployment rate remained at 9.0%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025

Employment

In trend terms, in January 2025, employment increased by 33,700 people (0.2%) to 14,616,400 people. 

Flows into and out of employment

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in January 2025:

  • full-time employment increased by 19,900 to 10,083,500 people, and part-time employment increased by 13,800 to 4,532,900 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 31.0%.

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in January 2025, the employment-to-population ratio increased to 64.5%.

The employment-to-population ratio provides a measure of employment relative to the size of the population.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in January 2025, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 1.9 million hours (0.1%) to 1,976 million hours.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025.

Participation

In trend terms, in January 2025, the participation rate:

  • remained at 67.2%.
  • remained at 71.3% for men and increased to 63.2% for women.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in January 2025:

  • underemployment rate remained at 6.0%.
  • underutilisation rate decreased to 10.0%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2025.

States and Territories

January 2025 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,520,7003,801,2002,995,200963,3001,640,300281,900139,300273,60014,616,400
Employed people - monthly change0.3%0.0%0.2%0.3%0.3%0.4%0.3%0.2%0.2%
Employment to population ratio64.0%64.9%64.6%61.1%66.5%58.2%69.3%70.2%64.5%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.2 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Unemployment rate3.9%4.6%3.9%4.1%3.5%4.0%4.4%3.2%4.0%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.9%6.1%6.2%6.8%5.5%7.8%4.5%5.1%6.0%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.6%68.1%67.2%63.7%69.0%60.7%72.5%72.4%67.2%
Participation rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.2 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
January 2025 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,522,4003,796,4002,997,400971,9001,641,800286,900139,600274,40014,634,300
Employed people - monthly change0.2%0.0%-0.1%2.1%0.0%2.5%0.5%0.8%0.3%
Employment to population ratio64.0%64.9%64.7%61.6%66.6%59.2%69.5%70.3%64.6%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.1 pts-0.2 pts-0.2 pts1.2 pts-0.2 pts1.4 pts0.3 pts0.5 pts0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.0%4.7%3.9%4.1%3.6%3.6%4.5%3.2%4.1%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.3 pts0.2 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.3 pts-0.6 pts0.3 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts
Underemployment rate5.8%5.9%6.4%6.6%5.7%7.9%5.3%5.3%6.0%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-0.1 pts-0.5 pts0.3 pts0.6 pts0.2 pts0.2 pts1.6 pts1.2 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.7%68.0%67.3%64.3%69.1%61.5%72.8%72.7%67.3%
Participation rate - monthly change0.2 pts0.0 pts-0.2 pts1.2 pts0.0 pts1.1 pts0.5 pts0.5 pts0.2 pts

Historical charts

Historical charts for employed, unemployed, unemployment rate and participation rate from August 1966 to January 2025

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

States and Territories

Comparability with seasonally adjusted and trend data

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data downloads

Labour Force Survey results are released in three stages.

  1. Spreadsheets of the headline indicators are published in this release
  2. Additional, more detailed spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release
  3. Longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab on a monthly basis, one day after the detailed release (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia)

See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

Labour Force status

Data files

The Labour Account is the best source of quarterly data for the market and non-market sectors. For information, see Industry employment guide.

The ABS is currently reviewing the usefulness of the market and non-market sector data in Table 21 of the headline Labour Force release.

Hours worked

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

Flows into and out of employment

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, January 2006 to January 2025

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, Historical (from February 1991)

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Labour Force status by Sex, State and Territory - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 and onwards.

Labour Force monthly hours worked by Sex, State and Territory - Monthly hours worked by employed people, monthly, July 1978 and onwards.

Labour Force status by Age Groups - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 and onwards.

Labour Force Educational Attendance - Educational attendance (Full Time) for 15-24 year olds by State, Territory and Sex, monthly, April 1986 and onwards.

Article archive

Employment and jobs

Unemployment and underemployment

Hours worked

Methodology

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

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