In December, Australia witnessed a slight rise in its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, up by 0.1 percentage point to 4%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported.
Bjorn Jarvis (pictured right), ABS head of labour statistics, explained the dynamics behind the numbers.
“With employment rising by 56,000 people and the number of unemployed increasing by 10,000 people, the unemployment rate rose to 4%,” Jarvis said.
Despite the uptick in unemployment, the employment sector saw substantial growth. December recorded a 0.4% increase in employed individuals, surpassing the average monthly rise of 0.3% throughout the year.
“The number of employed people grew by 0.4% in December 2024, slightly higher than the average monthly rise of 0.3% during 2024,” Jarvis said.
Additionally, the employment-to-population ratio achieved a new record of 64.5%, indicating a strong job market resilience.
The labour force participation rate also saw an increase, climbing 0.2 percentage points to a record high of 67.1% in December.
This reflects a growing workforce engagement, 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous year and 1.6 percentage points above the level in March 2020.
The ABS data also highlighted that hours worked in December rose by 0.5%, indicating not just more jobs but more work being done.
The underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who wish to work more hours, decreased slightly to 6.0%, showcasing a 0.6 percentage point improvement from December 2023.
The youth underemployment rate remained higher than the overall population at 14.1% for individuals aged 15-24, although it marked a significant reduction from previous years.
Notably, the rate for young men and women also showed divergent trends, with men experiencing a notable reduction in underemployment throughout 2024.
Despite the changes in employment and underemployment, the overall underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment figures, stayed steady at 10% in December, ABS reported.
This rate is significantly lower than the pre-pandemic figures and comparable to levels seen just before the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
Jarvis emphasised the broader implications of these figures.
“While the unemployment rate has barely changed since last December, rising by around 0.1%, other key measures returned to highs and lows during 2024,” he said.
The ABS leader highlighted that both the employment-to-population ratio and participation rate had rebounded to record highs.
In contrast to the ABS figures, Roy Morgan recently reported a more substantial rise in unemployment for December, noting an increase to 9.7%. This change represents an addition of 180,000 unemployed individuals, bringing the total up to 1,542,000.
For more details, see the ABS media release or read "Labour Force, Australia, December 2024".
