Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 13-Jun-17

Australia’s real unemployment rate was 9.8% (1.284 million Australians looking for work) in May 2017. In addition 1.338 million Australians were under-employed (10.2% of the workforce). This is a total of 2.622 million Australians (20% of the workforce) looking for work or looking for more work. In May the total Australian workforce was 13,074,000 (up 291,000 in 12 months) and employment grew to 11,790,000 (up 376,000). However, the increase in employment was almost entirely driven by a large increase in part-time employment, which rose 346,000 to 4,238,000. Full-time employment rose a modest 30,000 to 7,552,000. Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan says last week’s Fair Work Commission decisions to increase the minimum wage by $22 per week (+3.3%) and partly defer cuts to Sunday penalty rates over three years instead of now have dealt a significant blow to the prospect of more jobs for Australia’s unemployed and under-employed.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS