The ABS will be closed from 12.00pm, 24 December 2024 and will reopen at 9.00am, 2 January 2025. During this time there will be no statistical releases and our support functions will be unavailable. The ABS wishes you a safe and happy Christmas.

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 2024
Released
19/09/2024

Key statistics

In trend terms, in August 2024:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. 
  • participation rate remained at 67.0%.
  • employment increased to 14,443,600.
  • employment to population ratio remained at 64.2%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 6.4%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,958 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in August 2024:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.2%.
  • participation rate remained at 67.1%.
  • employment increased to 14,458,600.
  • employment to population ratio increased to 64.3%.
  • underemployment rate increased to 6.5%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,962 million.
  • full-time employment decreased by 3,100 to 9,979,100 people.
  • part-time employment increased by 50,600 to 4,479,500 people.
Key statistics - Trend
Jul-24Aug-24Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,403,30014,443,60040,3000.3%362,8002.6%
Unemployed people620,200625,2005,0000.8%83,30015.4%
Unemployment rate4.1%4.1%0.0 ptsna0.4 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.4%6.4%0.0 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Participation rate67.0%67.0%0.1 ptsna0.3 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,955 million1,958 million3 million0.2%24 million1.3%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Jul-24Aug-24Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people14,411,10014,458,60047,5000.3%374,2002.7%
Unemployed people637,400627,000-10,500-1.6%86,60016.0%
Unemployment rate4.2%4.2%-0.1 ptsna0.5 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.3%6.5%0.1 ptsna-0.1 ptsna
Participation rate67.1%67.1%0.0 ptsna0.4 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs1,955 million1,962 million8 million0.4%33 million1.7%

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

Release of modelled regional labour force estimates

Improvements to estimation method

Quarterly rebenchmarking of labour force statistics

Survey response and timeline

Unemployment

In trend terms, in August 2024:

  • unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.
  • unemployed people increased by 5,000 to 625,200. 
  • youth unemployment rate remained at 9.8%.

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, August 2024.

Employment

In trend terms, in August 2024, employment increased by 40,300 people (0.3%) to 14,443,600 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, August 2024.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in August 2024:

  • full-time employment increased by 30,600 to 9,980,100 people, and part-time employment increased by 9,700 to 4,463,500 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 30.9%. 

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in August 2024, the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.2%.

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, August 2024.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in August 2024, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 3.1 million hours (0.2%) to 1,958 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, August 2024.

Participation

In trend terms, in August 2024, the participation rate:

  • remained at 67.0%.
  • remained at 71.0% for men and increased to 63.1% 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, August 2024.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in August 2024:

  • underemployment rate remained at 6.4%.
  • underutilisation remained at 10.6%.

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, August 2024.

States and Territories

August 2024 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,460,6003,778,7002,954,400941,9001,616,100281,100139,800270,20014,443,600
Employed people - monthly change0.3%0.4%0.2%0.2%0.2%-0.2%0.3%0.1%0.3%
Employment to population ratio63.5%65.2%64.4%60.1%66.4%58.2%70.0%69.9%64.2%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.0%4.5%4.2%4.0%3.8%4.3%4.3%3.6%4.1%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate6.1%6.6%6.7%7.6%5.5%6.8%3.8%5.2%6.4%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.2 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.2%68.2%67.2%62.6%69.0%60.8%73.1%72.5%67.0%
Participation rate - monthly change0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts
August 2024 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,459,0003,783,0002,950,600943,1001,612,900280,400139,400269,10014,458,600
Employed people - monthly change-0.5%0.4%0.9%0.2%-0.2%0.5%-0.7%-0.4%0.3%
Employment to population ratio63.5%65.2%64.3%60.1%66.2%58.0%69.8%69.5%64.3%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change-0.4 pts0.1 pts0.4 pts0.0 pts-0.3 pts0.3 pts-0.6 pts-0.4 pts0.1 pts
Unemployment rate4.1%4.5%4.2%3.9%3.9%4.4%4.2%3.9%4.2%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.1 pts-0.4 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts
Underemployment rate6.3%6.7%6.8%7.6%5.7%6.7%3.7%5.1%6.5%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.2 pts0.1 pts0.2 pts0.5 pts0.2 pts0.5 pts-1.1 pts-1.0 pts0.1 pts
Participation rate66.2%68.3%67.1%62.6%68.9%60.7%72.8%72.4%67.1%
Participation rate - monthly change-0.4 pts0.0 pts0.4 pts-0.3 pts-0.2 pts0.3 pts-0.7 pts-0.4 pts0.0 pts

Historical charts

Historical charts for employed, unemployed, unemployment rate and participation rate from August 1966 to August 2024

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

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, September 2005 to August 2024

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.

Back to top of the page