Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 15-Jan-25

In December 2024, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased by 180,000 to 1,542,000 (up 1.1% to 9.7% of the workforce), with many fewer people in part-time employment following the Black Friday sales period in November. In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.68 million Australians (10.6% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work (up 132,000 from November to a new record high). In total, 3.22 million Australians (20.3% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in December; this is the highest combined figure since August 2020. Meanwhile, Australian employment fell by 154,000 to 14,276,000; this decrease was driven by a fall in part-time employment (down 210,000 to 4,953,000 following the Black Friday sales period), while full-time employment increased by 56,000 to 9,323,000. The total workforce in December was 15,818,000 (up 26,000 from November, and up 866,000 from two years ago). Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 9.7% is clearly more than double the ABS estimate of 3.9% for November, but it is approaching the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 10.3%.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS