Labour Force, Australia

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

Reference period
February 2021
Released
18/03/2021

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for February 2021:

  • Unemployment rate decreased to 5.8%.
  • Participation rate remained at 66.1%.
  • Employment increased to 13,006,900.
  • Employment to population ratio increased to 62.3%.
  • Underemployment rate increased to 8.5%.
  • Monthly hours worked increased by 102 million hours.
Jan-2021Feb-2021Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
Employed people12,918,20013,006,90088,7000.7%-1,8000.0%
Unemployed people875,100805,200-69,900-8.0%109,50015.7%
Unemployment rate6.3%5.8%-0.5 ptsna0.8 ptsna
Underemployment rate8.1%8.5%0.4 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Participation rate66.1%66.1%0.1 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,665 million 1,767 million102 million6.1%3 million0.2%

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

Quarterly rebenchmarking of labour force statistics

Survey response and timeline

Seasonal adjustment and trend estimates

Treatment of people on JobKeeper, JobSeeker or stood down

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

Articles and other information

This months Labour Force release includes:

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

Additional spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this release, while longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab, one day after the detailed release (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia).

Unemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021:

  • The unemployment rate decreased 0.5 pts to 5.8% (0.8 pts higher than a year ago)
  • Unemployed people decreased by 69,900 to 805,200 (and increased by 109,500 over the year to February 2021)
  • The youth unemployment rate decreased 1.1 pts to 12.9% (and increased by 0.5 pts over the year to February 2021)

Employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021:

  • Employment increased by 88,700 people (0.7%) to 13,006,900 people
  • Over the year to February 2021, employment decreased 1,800 people, less than 0.1%

 

 See the article Changing female employment over time for further analysis.

Flows into and out of employment

Full-time and part-time employment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021:

  • Full-time employment increased by 89,100 to 8,895,000 people, and part-time employment decreased by 500 to 4,111,900 people
  • Over the year to February 2021, full-time employment increased by 5,500 people and part-time employment decreased by 7,300 people
  • The part-time share of employment over the past 12 months remained at 31.6%

Employment-to-population ratio

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021:

  • The employment-to-population ratio increased by 0.4 pts to 62.3%, and has decreased by 0.3 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 February 2021, monthly hours worked in all jobs :

  • Increased by 102 million hours (6.1%) to 1,767 million hours
  • Increased by 0.2% over the year, which is larger than the less than 0.1% decrease in employed people

See the article Insights into hours worked for more.

Participation

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021, the participation rate:

  • Remained at 66.1%, and has increased 0.2 pts over the year to February 2021
  • Decreased by 0.2 pts for men (to 71.0%) and increased by 0.3 pts for women (to 61.4%)

Underemployment

In seasonally adjusted terms, in February 2021:

  • The underemployment rate increased by 0.4 pts to 8.5% (0.1 pts lower than a year ago)
  • The underutilisation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 14.4%

States and territories

February 2021, Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,113,1003,439,3002,603,800847,4001,369,400261,200131,100236,10013,006,900
Employed people - monthly change1.0%0.8%0.9%0.8%0.1%1.5%0.3%1.1%0.7%
Employment to population ratio61.9%62.8%62.2%58.1%63.7%58.2%69.5%68.8%62.3%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.6 pts0.5 pts0.5 pts0.4 pts0.0 pts0.8 pts0.2 pts0.8 pts0.4 pts
Unemployment rate5.6%5.6%6.1%6.8%6.0%5.7%4.9%4.1%5.8%
Unemployment rate - monthly change-0.4 pts-0.7 pts-0.8 pts-0.2 pts-0.1 pts-0.2 pts-0.7 pts-0.3 pts-0.5 pts
Underemployment rate8.1%9.1%8.3%8.6%8.7%9.0%4.5%5.0%8.5%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts0.6 pts-0.3 pts0.2 pts1.6 pts0.1 pts-2.4 pts-0.7 pts0.4 pts
Participation rate65.6%66.6%66.2%62.4%67.7%61.7%73.1%71.7%66.1%
Participation rate - monthly change0.4 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.3 pts-0.1 pts0.7 pts-0.3 pts0.6 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 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

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, February 1991 onwards

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets

Article archive

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

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