Labour Force, Australia

This is not the latest release View the latest release

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

Reference period
August 2020
Released
17/09/2020

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for August 2020:

  • Unemployment rate decreased to 6.8%.
  • Participation rate increased to 64.8%.
  • Employment increased 111,000 to 12,583,400.
  • Employment to population ratio increased to 60.3%.
  • Underemployment rate remained at 11.2%.
  • Monthly hours worked increased by 1.6 million hours.
Jul-20Aug-20Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
Employed people12,472,40012,583,400111,0000.9%-338,300-2.6%
Unemployed people1,008,300921,800-86,500-8.6%206,20028.8%
Unemployment rate7.5%6.8%-0.7 ptsna1.6 ptsna
Underemployment rate11.2%11.2%-0.1 ptsna2.7 ptsna
Participation rate64.7%64.8%0.1 ptsna-1.4 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs (millions)1,6821,6831.60.1%-90-5.1%

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.

Survey impacts and changes

Survey response and timeline

New ABS website and changes to Labour Force Survey publications

Quarterly population rebenchmarking

Continued suspension of trend estimates

Treatment of people on JobKeeper, JobSeeker or stood down

For further information, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

Unemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020:

  • the unemployment rate decreased 0.7 pts to 6.8% (1.6 pts higher than a year ago)
  • unemployed people decreased by 86,500 to 921,800 (and increased by 206,200 over the year to August 2020)
  • the youth unemployment rate decreased 2.0 pts to 14.3% (and increased by 2.6 pts over the year to August 2020)

Employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020:

  • employment increased by 111,000 people (0.9%) to 12,583,400 people
  • over the year to August 2020, employment decreased by 2.6% or 338,300 people

Underpinning this net increase in the number of employed people are extensive flows of people into and out of employment Around 400,000 people entered employment (i.e. they were employed in August but were not employed in July), while around 400,000 people left employment (i.e. they were employed in July but were not employed in August). This contrasts with the previous month, where around 500,000 people entered employment and around 400,000 people left employment.

Full-time and part-time employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020:

  • full-time employment increase by 36,200 to 8,584,500 people, and part-time employment increased by 74,800 to 3,998,900 people
  • over the year to August 2020, full-time employment decreased by 234,200 people and part-time employment decreased by 104,100 people
  • the part-time share of employment over the past 12 months, remained at 31.7%.

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020:

  • the employment-to-population ratio increased by 0.5 pts to 60.3%, and decreased by 2.3 pts from the same time last year

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

Hours worked

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020, monthly hours worked in all jobs:

  • increased by 1.6 million hours (0.1%) to 1,683 million hours
  • decreased by 5.1% over the year, which is larger than the 2.6% decrease in employed people

See the article Insights into Hours worked for more.

Participation

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020, the participation rate:

  • increased by 0.1 pts to 64.8%, and decreased 1.4 pts over the year to August 2020
  • increased by 0.1 pts for men (to 69.7%) and increased by 0.1 pts for women (to 60.0%)

Underemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2020:

  • the underemployment rate remained at 11.2% (2.7 pts higher than a year ago)
  • the underutilisation rate decreased by 0.7 pts to 18.0%

States and territories

August 2020, Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed persons4,042,4003,255,1002,447,900841,2001,350,300255,300132,500240,10012,583,400
Employed persons - monthly change1.3%-1.3%0.7%1.6%2.4%0.9%4.6%2.7%0.9%
Employment to population ratio60.9%59.4%58.8%57.9%63.1%57.2%70.3%70.1%60.3%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.8 pts-0.8 pts0.4 pts0.9 pts1.5 pts0.5 pts3.1 pts1.8 pts0.5 pts
Unemployment rate6.7%7.1%7.5%7.9%7.0%6.3%4.2%4.2%6.8%
Unemployment rate - monthly change-0.5 pts0.4 pts-1.3 pts0 pts-1.3 pts0.3 pts-3.3 pts-0.4 pts-0.7 pts
Underemployment rate9.8%13.8%9.3%11.4%9.6%12.0%8.4%5.2%11.2%
Underemployment rate - monthly change-0.9 pts0.8 pts-1.3 pts0.4 pts-1 pts-0.7 pts1.5 pts-1.9 pts-0.1 pts
Participation rate65.2%63.9%63.6%62.8%67.9%61.1%73.4%73.1%64.8%
Participation rate - monthly change0.5 pts-0.6 pts-0.5 pts1 pts0.6 pts0.7 pts0.7 pts1.6 pts0.1 pts

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

States and territories

Managing COVID-19 impacts on the incoming rotation groups

Comparability with seasonally adjusted data

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data downloads

Labour Force Survey results are released in two stages, with additional spreadsheets published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release. See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

Labour force status

Table 1. Labour force status by Sex, Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 4. Labour force status by Sex, New South Wales - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 5. Labour force status by Sex, Victoria - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 6. Labour force status by Sex, Queensland - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 7. Labour force status by Sex, South Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 8. Labour force status by Sex, Western Australia - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 9. Labour force status by Sex, Tasmania - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 10. Labour force status by Sex, Northern Territory - Trend and Original

Table 10a. Labour force status by Sex, Northern Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 11. Labour force status by Sex, Australian Capital Territory - Trend and Original

Table 11a. Labour force status by Sex, Australian Capital Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 12. Labour force status by Sex, State and Territory - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 12a. Labour force status by Sex, Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 13. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 15. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by Educational attendance (full-time) and Sex

Table 16. Labour force status for 15-24 year olds by State, Territory and Educational attendance (full-time)

Table 17. Labour force status for 15-19 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 18. Labour force status for 15-64 year olds by Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Hours worked

Table 19. Monthly hours worked in all jobs by Employed full-time, part-time and Sex and by State and Territory - Trend and Seasonally adjusted

Table 19a. Monthly hours worked in all jobs by Employed full-time, part-time and Sex and Territory - Seasonally adjusted

Table 21. Quarterly hours worked in all jobs by Market and Non-market sector - Seasonally adjusted

Underemployment and underutilisation

Table 22. Underutilised persons by Age and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 23. Underutilised persons by State and Territory and Sex - Trend, Seasonally adjusted and Original

Table 23a. Underutilised persons by Territory and Sex - Seasonally adjusted

Table 24. Underutilised persons by Age and Sex (expanded analytical series)

Table 25. Underutilised persons by State, Territory and Sex (expanded analytical series)

Flows into and out of employment

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

All time series spreadsheets

All Time Series Spreadsheets

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

Article archive

History of changes

Show all

Back to top of the page