Roy Morgan has released its October unemployment figures and registered a small fall, though the rate remains much more elevated than that of the ABS:
In October 2012 an estimated 1.163 million Australians (9.7% of the workforce, down 0.3% in a month) were unemployed, and the Australian workforce* was 12,009,000, (down 141,000 in a month, comprising 7,313,000 full-time workers (down 32,000); 3,533,000 part-time workers (down 59,000) and 1,163,000 looking for work (down 50,000) according to Roy Morgan.
A further 975,000 Australians are under-employed – working part-time and looking for more work. This is 72,000 more than a month ago, and represents 8.1% of the workforce* — up 0.7% this month.
In total 2,138 million Australians were unemployed or under-employed in October, 22,000 more than last month, 17.8% (up 0.4%) of the workforce. However, this is up a significant 264,000 over the past 12 months since October 2011.
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.
