Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased by 294,000 people to 1,597,000 in July 2024 compared to last month, according to new data from research firm Roy Morgan.
This is up by 1.8 per cent and makes up 10.1 per cent of the workforce.
The lift in July is the highest level of unemployment for a year since August 2023, Roy Morgan reported, and was caused by a significant decline in part-time jobs during July after the end of the Mid-Year sales.
Part-time employment in July dropped by 176,000 to 4,765,000 – the lowest level of part-time employment for a year since July 2023. Although full-time employment increased marginally in July - up 24,000 to 9,390,000 - overall employment for the month dropped by 152,000 to 14,155,000.
The July Roy Morgan Unemployment estimates are based on weekly interviews of 988,134 Australians aged 14 and over between January 2007 and June 2024 and includes 7,521 telephone and online interviews in June 2024.
A person is classified as unemployed if they are looking for work, no matter when.
The increase in unemployment was driven by more people looking for both full-time work, up 188,000 to 657,000, and part-time work, up 106,000 to 940,000.
Overall unemployment and under-employment jumped 2.5 percentage points to 19.8 per cent in July. In total 3.13 million Australians were either unemployed or under-employed in July.
Compared to a year ago, ‘real’ unemployment is up by 216,000 people.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said a longer-term look at overall levels of unemployment and under-employment shows the figure has increased to its highest for nearly four years since October 2020, during the early period of the pandemic and extensive lockdowns, when 3.15 million Australians (22.2 per cent) were unemployed or under-employed.
“The employment trends since borders reopened and pandemic-era restrictions ended in late 2022 has been for rapid population growth powering a sharp rise in the workforce and plenty of new jobs,” Levine said. “These latest figures for July show that the employment market is clearly struggling to provide jobs to all those in the rapidly growing workforce.
“These trends continued in July with the labour force experiencing a large increase in population compared to a year ago (up 687,000) - a rate clearly more than double the average annual population growth over the last 25 years of 292,000.
“This population increase has been the driver of a growing workforce, up by 591,000 to a near-record high of over 15.7 million in July 2024. In turn, the increasing workforce has led to a large rise in employment, up 375,000 to well over 14.1 million.
“The level of labour under-utilisation has also increased significantly from a year ago. ‘Real’ unemployment has increased 216,000 to 1,597,000 and under-employment is up 101,000 to 1,535,000. The combined increase of these two key indicators is a large 317,000.
“The continuing level of high unemployment and under-employment (3.13 million, nearly 1-in-5 Australians in the workforce) shows the labour market is struggling to provide jobs for all those joining the workforce. Tackling the persistent high level of unemployment and under-employment must be the number one priority for the Federal Government which is due to face an election during the next year.”