Showing posts with label April 2023. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April 2023. Show all posts

Sunday 21 May 2023

AUSTRALIA EMPLOYMENT STATE OF PLAY APRIL 2023: monthly figures reveal fewer people have full time jobs & 528,000 workers are in the unemployment queue

 

The latest Labor Force Australia: Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey was released on Thursday, 18 May 2023.


This survey reveals that:


In seasonally adjusted terms, in April 2023:

  • unemployment rate increased to 3.7%.

  • participation rate decreased to 66.7%.

  • employment decreased to 13,882,100.

  • employment to population ratio decreased to 64.2%.

  • underemployment rate decreased to 6.1%.

  • monthly hours worked increased to 1,974 million.

  • full-time employment decreased by 27,100 to 9,726,500 people.

  • part-time employment increased by 22,800 to 4,155,600 people.


So to recap:

Seasonally adjusted a total of 13.8 million workers remain in employment across Australia, with est. 4.8 million working less than 35 hours a week and 4.1 million classified as part-time employees.
 
While the national monthly seasonally adjusted unemployment figure stood at 528,000 persons and the unemployment rate at 3.7%. The gender breakdown for that number was 301,900 males (unemployment rate 4.0%) and 226,100 females (unemployment rate 3.3%). 

In NSW the monthly seasonally adjusted unemployment figure was 151,500 persons, being 85,200 males (unemployment rate 3.6%) and 66,300 females (unemployment rate 3.1%).


REGIONAL ESTIMATES COVERING THE NORTHERN RIVERS REGION IN APRIL 2023:



Coffs Harbour-Grafton

Employed Full-Time  40,100 persons

Employed Part-Time  28,100 persons

Unemployed Total  2,800 persons

Not in the Labour Force  55,100 persons

Unemployment rate for 15-64 years of age  4

Youth Unemployment Rate 15-24 years — 6.3%.


Richmond-Tweed

Employed Full-Time  79,800 persons

Employed Part-Time  50,400 persons

Unemployed Total  3,600 persons

Not in the Labour Force  86,500 persons

Unemployment Rate for 15-64 years of age — 2.7

Youth Unemployment Rate 15-24 years — 5.4%.


NOTE: NSW regional estimates for all SA4 employment areas in April 2023 can be found at:




Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), media release, 18 May 2023:


The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point (rounded) to 3.7 per cent in April, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).


Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said: "with employment dropping by around 4,000 people and the number of unemployed increasing by 18,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 per cent.”


The small fall in employment followed an average monthly increase of around 39,000 people during the first quarter of this year.”


Similarly, the employment-to-population ratio fell 0.2 percentage points to 64.2 per cent and the participation rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 66.7 per cent.


Even with these falls, both indicators were still well above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels and close to their historical highs in 2022,” Mr Jarvis said.


Hours worked


Seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked increased by 2.6 per cent in April.


This was because fewer people than usual worked reduced hours over the Easter period,” Mr Jarvis said.


The last time Easter and the survey period aligned like this was in 2015, when around 60 per cent of employed people worked fewer hours than usual. This Easter it was only around 55 per cent of employed people.


This may reflect more people taking their leave earlier or later than usual, or that some people were unable to, given the high number of vacancies that we’re still seeing employers reporting….


Underemployment and underutilisation


The underemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 6.1 per cent (seasonally adjusted), following a 0.4 percentage point increase in March.


"The underemployment rate is still low in historic terms, around 2.6 percentage points lower than before the pandemic, and underpinned by faster growth in hours worked than employment," Mr Jarvis said.


The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, rose slightly to 9.8 per cent, and remained 4.2 percentage points lower than in March 2020.


NOTE:


The April survey reference period was from 2 April to 15 April 2023.

The May survey reference period is from 30 April to 13 May 2023.