Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 21-Jan-26

In December 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased by 41,000 to 1,669,000 (up 0.2%, to 10.4% of the workforce). More people were looking for full-time work in December (up 68,000 to 667,000), although there were fewer people looking for part-time work (down 27,000 to 1,002,000). In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.79 million Australians (11.1% of the workforce, up 0.4%) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work (up 78,000 from November). In total 3.46 million Australians (21.5% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in December. Meanwhile, employment increased by 89,000 to 14,428,000; Roy Morgan estimates the overall workforce size (which adds together the employed and unemployed) at 16,097,000 in December (up 130,000 on a month ago), and representing 69.2% of Australians aged 14+.

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