Labour Force, Australia

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Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey

Reference period
January 2023
Released
16/02/2023

Key statistics

In trend terms, in January 2023:

  • unemployment rate remained at 3.5%.
  • participation rate decreased to 66.5%.
  • employment increased to 13,753,200.
  • employment to population ratio decreased to 64.2%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 6.1%.
  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,884 million.

In seasonally adjusted terms, in January 2023:

  • unemployment rate increased to 3.7%.
  • participation rate decreased to 66.5%.
  • employment decreased to 13,721,900.
  • employment to population ratio decreased to 64.0%.
  • underemployment rate remained at 6.1%.
  • monthly hours worked decreased to 1,836 million.
  • full-time employment decreased by 43,300 to 9,567,800 people.
  • part-time employment increased by 31,800 to 4,154,100 people.
Key statistics - Trend
Dec-2022Jan-2023Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people13,741,90013,753,20011,3000.1%415,3003.1%
Unemployed people501,200505,0003,9000.8%-59,200-10.5%
Unemployment rate3.5%3.5%0.0 ptsna-0.5 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.1%6.1%0.0 ptsna-0.5 ptsna
Participation rate66.6%66.5%-0.1 ptsna0.3 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,881 million 1,884 million3 million0.2%64 million3.5%
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
Dec-2022Jan-2023Monthly changeMonthly change (%)Yearly changeYearly change (%)
Employed people13,733,40013,721,900-11,500-0.1%394,1003.0%
Unemployed people501,300523,20021,9004.4%-56,400-9.7%
Unemployment rate3.5%3.7%0.2 ptsna-0.5 ptsna
Underemployment rate6.1%6.1%0.1 ptsna-0.4 ptsna
Participation rate66.6%66.5%-0.1 ptsna0.2 ptsna
Monthly hours worked in all jobs 1,877 million 1,836 million-40 million-2.1%155 million9.2%

Estimates of changes throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded level estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded level estimates.

Survey impacts and changes

Guide to labour statistics

To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our new Guide to labour statistics. It provides summary information on key labour market topics including Industry employment data.

Articles and other information

The ABS has included more detailed information given the interest in understanding flows into and out of employment in January, holiday-related impacts on hours worked, and historical comparisons with the labour market before the monthly Labour Force Survey commenced in 1978.

This detailed information can be found in:

For a list of previously published LFS articles, see the Article archive.

The ABS is also continuing to include data cubes EM2a and EM2b in this release. These two data cubes are usually only released in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, but will continue to be released in the headline release over the coming months.

Additional spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this release, while longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab, on 24 February 2023 (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia).

Survey response and timeline

Unemployment

In trend terms, in January 2023:

  • unemployment rate remained at 3.5%.
  • unemployed people increased by 3,900 to 505,000. 
  • youth unemployment rate remained at 7.8%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

Employment

In trend terms, in January 2023, employment increased by 11,300 people (0.1%) to 13,753,200 people.

Flows into and out of employment

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

Full-time and part-time employment

In trend terms, in January 2023:

  • full-time employment increased by 9,200 to 9,602,400 people, and part-time employment increased by 2,200 to 4,150,800 people.
  • part-time share of employment was 30.2%.

 

Employment-to-population ratio

In trend terms, in January 2023, the employment-to-population ratio decreased to 64.2%.

The employment-to-population ratio provides a measure of employment relative to the size of the population.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

Hours worked

In trend terms, in January 2023, monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 3.3 million hours (0.2%) to 1,884 million hours.

See the article Insights into hours worked for more.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

Participation

In trend terms, in January 2023, the participation rate:

  • decreased to 66.5%.

  • decreased to 71.1% for men and remained at 62.2% for women.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. Information on trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

Underemployment

In trend terms, in January 2023:

  • underemployment rate remained at 6.1%.
  • underutilisation rate remained at 9.6%.

Large month-to-month changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in multiple trend breaks. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period. A list of trend breaks can be found in Labour Force, Australia methodology, January 2023.

States and Territories

January 2023 - Trend
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,310,4003,507,0002,797,400926,2001,512,500289,200142,500259,40013,753,200
Employed people - monthly change0.2%0.0%0.2%0.2%0.1%0.1%0.4%0.2%0.1%
Employment to population ratio64.2%64.0%63.9%61.1%66.4%60.0%71.6%69.8%64.2%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts
Unemployment rate3.2%3.8%3.7%4.0%3.7%4.0%3.9%3.0%3.5%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts
Underemployment rate5.7%6.1%6.5%6.9%5.8%8.0%5.0%5.1%6.1%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.1 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts0.3 pts0.0 pts0.2 pts0.0 pts
Participation rate66.3%66.5%66.4%63.6%68.9%62.5%74.5%72.0%66.5%
Participation rate - monthly change0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts0.1 pts0.0 pts-0.1 pts
January 2023 - Seasonally adjusted
New South WalesVictoriaQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaTasmaniaNorthern TerritoryAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia
Employed people4,300,8003,489,7002,803,000927,9001,511,100287,300142,500259,20013,721,900
Employed people - monthly change-0.1%-0.8%0.6%0.5%-0.4%-0.9%0.5%-0.8%-0.1%
Employment to population ratio64.0%63.6%64.0%61.1%66.3%59.6%71.8%69.7%64.0%
Employment to population ratio - monthly change-0.2 pts-0.6 pts0.3 pts0.2 pts-0.3 pts-0.6 pts0.3 pts-0.7 pts-0.2 pts
Unemployment rate3.1%4.0%3.8%4.0%3.6%4.1%4.0%3.4%3.7%
Unemployment rate - monthly change0.0 pts0.5 pts0.0 pts0.1 pts0.1 pts0.5 pts-0.1 pts0.6 pts0.2 pts
Underemployment rate5.9%6.2%6.4%6.9%6.0%9.0%4.9%5.1%6.1%
Underemployment rate - monthly change0.1 pts0.1 pts-0.2 pts-1.0 pts0.2 pts1.5 pts-0.4 pts0.6 pts0.1 pts
Participation rate66.1%66.3%66.5%63.7%68.8%62.2%74.7%72.2%66.5%
Participation rate - monthly change-0.2 pts-0.3 pts0.2 pts0.2 pts-0.3 pts-0.3 pts0.3 pts-0.3 pts-0.1 pts

Rotation group analysis

Sample composition and rotation

Estimates for the incoming and outgoing rotation groups

States and Territories

Comparability with seasonally adjusted and trend data

Contribution from sample components to estimates

Data downloads

Labour Force Survey results are released in three stages.

  1. Spreadsheets of the headline indicators are published in this release
  2. Additional, more detailed spreadsheets and pivot tables are published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed one week after this first release
  3. Longitudinal labour force microdata are released in the ABS DataLab on a monthly basis, one day after the detailed release (see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia)

See the Survey output section of Labour Force, Australia methodology for more information.

Labour Force status

Data files

Hours worked

Data files

Underemployment and underutilisation

Data files

Flows into and out of employment

GM1 - Labour force status and Gross changes (flows) by Age, Sex, State and Territory, February 1991 onwards

All time series spreadsheets

All time series spreadsheets


 

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Labour force status by Sex, State and Territory - Number of people employed, unemployed and not in the labour force, monthly, February 1978 and onwards.

Article archive

Employment and jobs

Unemployment and underemployment

Hours worked

Methodology

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6202.0.

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