Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 18-Jun-25

In May 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1,715,000 (down 0.3%, to 10.9% of the workforce). However, the fall in unemployment was not because people looking for work found jobs, but because they gave up and left the workforce. In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.44 million Australians (9.1% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work (down 36,000 from April). In total, 3.15 million Australians (20.0% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in May. Meanwhile, Roy Morgan estimates that the overall workforce size (which adds together both the employed and unemployed) was just over 15.7 million in May, down 206,000 on a month ago and representing 68.3% of Australians aged 14+. This is the smallest estimated workforce so far this year, and the largest monthly workforce contraction since October 2021. Roy Morgan also estimates that just over 14 million people (14,025,000) were employed in May; this is down 141,000 from a month ago, and the lowest level of employment since November 2023.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Original article by Michele Levine Gary Morgan Julian McCrann
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Jul-20

The ABS unemployment estimate for June 2020 claims 992,000 Australians were unemployed (7.4% of the workforce), the highest unemployment rate since September 1999. However, the ABS claims 416,000 Australians have left the workforce since March – meaning the participation rate has dropped from 66% to 64% in June. If the ABS participation rate was steady at 66% there would now be 1.41 million unemployed. In addition, within the ABS employment release is a section indicating 175,000 Australians the ABS counts as employed were working zero hours in June and had ‘no work, not enough work available, or were stood down’. If these non-workers are added the adjusted ABS unemployment estimate increases to 1.58 million – an unemployment rate of 11.9%. Combined with the ABS under-employment estimate of 11.7% (1.56 million) that would be 3.14 million Australians unemployed or under-employed in June – 23.6% of the Australian workforce. This ‘adjusted’ ABS estimate is close to Roy Morgan’s unemployment & under-employment estimate of 24.5% for June released two weeks ago.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Oct-17

A Roy Morgan survey shows that 1.202 million Australians were unemployed (9.1% of the workforce) in September, an increase of 101,000 (up 0.6%) on a year ago. In addition, 1.296 million Australians (9.8% of the workforce) are now under-employed and looking for work or looking for more work, up a significant 294,000 (2.1%) in a year. In total, 2.498 million (18.9%) Australians were unemployed or under-employed in September – marking two whole years in which more than two million Australians have been looking for work or looking for more work. The figures also show that 11,972,000 Australians were employed in September – an increase of 143,000 over the past year. The Roy Morgan real unemployment figures are substantially higher than the current ABS estimate of 5.6% for August. Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan says the Roy Morgan employment estimates have consistently shown that the Australian economy is generating new jobs, but the increase in employment is heavily concentrated in part-time rather than full-time jobs – and that trend has continued.

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ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED. AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS