Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Jun-26

In May 2026, Australian ‘real’ unemployment rose 69,000 to 1,704,000 (10.7% of the workforce, up 0.6%), but under-employment dropped 136,000 to 1,503,000 (down 0.7% to 9.5%). In total, 3.21 million Australians (20.2% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in May. Roy Morgan estimates the overall workforce size (which adds together the employed and unemployed) at just under 15.9 million in May (15,860,000 to be exact, down 231,000 on a month ago, and representing 67.7% of Australians aged 14+). Employment was down 300,000 to 14,156,000 in May; this was driven by falls in both full-time employment (down 224,000 to 8,921,000) and part-time employment (down 76,000 to 5,235,000. Overall employment represents 60.4% of Australians aged 14+. The May Roy Morgan Unemployment estimates were obtained by surveying an Australia-wide cross section of people aged 14+.

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