Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 13-Aug-18

A Roy Morgan survey shows that 12,021,000 Australians were employed in July, up 167,000 over the past year. The increase was driven by growth in both full-time employment (which was up 66,000 to 7,765,000) and an even stronger increase in part-time employment (up 101,000 to 4,256,000). The figures also show that 1,329,000 Australians were unemployed (10% of the workforce) in July, an increase of 93,000 (up 0.6%) on a year ago. In addition, 1,148,000 Australians (8.6% of the workforce) are now under-employed, working part-time and looking for more work, a fall of 78,000 in a year (down 0.8%). Roy Morgan’s real unemployment figure of 10% for July remains substantially higher than the current ABS estimate for June 2018 of 5.4%. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the increasing casualisation of the Australian workforce has strengthened in recent years with the rise of the so-called "gig" economy, but Foodora’s impeding exit from the Australian market shows that there are limits to this type of employment model when regulatory and competition considerations are taken into account. Foodora’s exit also signifies how important it is for governments to create sensible industrial relations laws that encourage employers to take on new workers rather than penalise employers looking to grow their business.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS