Roy Morgan unemployment stays high

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Roy Morgan unemployment for July was just release and shows no easing in its recent spike:

In July 2012 an estimated 1.171 million Australians (9.7%, unchanged in a month) were unemployed, and the Australian workforce* was 12,119,000, (up 110,000 in a month) — comprising 7,432,000 full-time workers (up 81,000); 3,516,000 part-time workers (up 27,000) and 1,171,000 looking for work (up 2,000) according to Roy Morgan.

Looking over the past 12 months, although employment has increased 146,000 since July 2011, the large increase in the workforce (up 432,000) means the unemployment rate has increased 2.1% to 9.7%.

A further 942,000 Australians are underemployed – working part-time and looking for more work. This is 11,000 more than a month ago, and represents 7.8% of the workforce* — unchanged this month.

In total 2.113 million Australians were unemployed or underemployed in July. This is 13,000 more than last month, 17.5% (unchanged) of the workforce, however, this is up a significant 370,000 over the past 12 months since July 2011.

The latest Roy Morgan unemployment estimate of 9.7% is now 4.5% above the 5.2% currently quoted by the ABS for June 2012.

The gap to ABS numbers remains very wide but is surely likely to close to the upside in the next few months given the slowing we are now seeing in mining, as well as in everything else.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.