Unemployment virtually unchanged in January

In January 2024, the Australian labour market saw minimal change in ‘real’ unemployment, with 1,382,000 individuals (8.9% of the workforce) classified as unemployed. Additionally, 1,618,000 people (10.4%) were under-employed, bringing the total of unemployed or under-employed individuals to a significant 3 million Australians (19.3% of the workforce).

Despite the high rates of unemployment and under-employment, the past year has witnessed a notable surge in employment, with a remarkable increase of 732,000 jobs, totalling 14,150,000 employed individuals. This marks the most substantial annual employment growth since the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The January Roy Morgan Unemployment estimates, sourced from a cross-section survey of Australians aged 14 and above, classify individuals as unemployed if they are actively seeking employment, regardless of the duration of their search.

Advertisements

In January 2024, the Australian labour market saw minimal change in ‘real’ unemployment, with 1,382,000 individuals (8.9% of the workforce) classified as unemployed.

In January, the workforce slightly declined to 15,532,000 individuals, with 14,150,000 employed and 1,382,000 unemployed individuals. Full-time employment decreased by 37,000 to 9,205,000, while part-time employment saw a modest increase of 12,000, reaching 4,945,000.

The number of unemployed individuals rose by 18,000, with 877,000 seeking part-time work and 505,000 looking for full-time employment.

While the workforce expanded by over 500,000 compared to the previous year, overall unemployment and under-employment slightly decreased by 0.1% points to 19.3% in January.

The number of under-employed individuals, those working part-time but seeking additional work, decreased by 33,000 to 1.62 million.

Compared to the pre-COVID-19 period in early March 2020, January 2024 saw a significant increase of over 850,000 Australians classified as either unemployed or under-employed, despite the overall employment figure of 14,150,000 being nearly 1.3 million higher than the pre-pandemic level of 12,872,000.

For more business news, click here.