Employment and unemployment

Seasonally adjusted estimates for September 2021:

• Unemployment rate increased to 4.6%.
• Participation rate decreased to 64.5%.
• Employment decreased to 12,884,600.
• Employment to population ratio decreased to 61.5%.
• Underemployment rate decreased to 9.2%.
• Monthly hours worked increased by 15 million hours.

Detailed monthly and quarterly Labour Force Survey data, including hours, regions, families, job search, job duration, casual, industry and occupation

In June 2021:

• There were 7.3 million families, an increase of 1 million since June 2011
• 1 in 7 families were one parent families (15.0%)
• There were 1.4 million jobless families (19.5%)
• Of the 6.1 million couple families, 1.6% were same-sex couples

• 2.2 million people who were not working wanted to work.
• 1.7 million people not working were available to start work immediately.
• 1.6 million people wanted to work more than their usual hours.
• Over half a million employed people worked fewer than their usual hours for economic reasons.
• 975,000 people changed jobs in the last year.

In February 2021 there were 20.7 million people in the usually resident civilian population who were 15 years or over, of whom:

• 2.2 million people who were not working and wanted to work, of whom 808,000 were unemployed.

• 1.7 million people who were not working and were available to start work immediately.

In February 2021:

• 1.6 million people (12% of employed) wanted to work more than their usual hours.
• 550,000 people (4% of employed) worked fewer than their usual hours for economic reasons.
• Underemployment ratio was 14.6%.

• Hours-based (volume) underemployment ratio was 5.3%.

There were 2,041,200 public sector employees at the end of June 2020 comprising:

• 246,000 employees in Commonwealth government;
• 1,609,100 in state government; and
• 186,000 in local government.

Total public sector cash wages and salaries in 2019-20 was $174,139.5 million.

• The most common reason women were unavailable start a job or work more hours within four weeks was 'Caring for children', while for men it was 'Long term sickness or disability'.

• The most important incentives for people to seek a job or more hours were those related to child-care access and costs.

• There were 3.9 million retirees.
• 55% of people over 55 were retired, up from 53% in 2016-17.
• Average retirement age (of all retirees) was 55.4 years.
• Half a million people intend to retire within 5 years.
• Average age people intend to retire is 65.5 years.
• Pension was the main income source for most retirees.

Employment in renewable energy activities reports on full time equivalent employment by state and territory and type of renewable energy

Detailed labour force data collected on a quarterly basis

Summary results following the process of rebenchmarking the Labour Force Survey data to the final 2016 Census based Estimated Resident Population