PERSONS NOT IN THE LABOUR FORCE
Persons not in the labour force are those people in the civilian population aged 15 years or over who are neither employed nor unemployed. At September 2006, 61,600 people in the ACT were classified as not in the labour force.
Persons not in the labour force can be divided further into those who are marginally attached to the labour force and those who are not marginally attached.
Persons not in the labour force are considered to be marginally attached to the labour force if they:
- want to work and are actively looking for work, but are not available to start work in the reference week, or
- want to work and are not actively looking for work, but are available to start work within four weeks.
Persons not in the labour force are not marginally attached to the labour force if they:
- do not want to work, or
- want to work, but are not actively looking for work, and are not available to start work within four weeks.
At September 2006, 8,500 people in the ACT had a marginal attachment to the labour force. Of the 53,100 people without a marginal attachment to the labour force, 4,000 wanted to work, but were not actively looking and were not available to start work within four weeks. A further 46,900 people did not want to work. The remaining 2,200 people not marginally attached to the labour force were permanently unable to work.
