In November 2012 an estimated 1.229 million Australians (10.0% of the workforce, up 0.3% in a month) were unemployed, and the Australian workforce* was 12,251,000, (up 242,000 in a month, comprising 7,377,000 full-time workers (up 64,000); 3,645,000 part-time workers (up 112,000) and 1,229,000 looking for work (up 66,000) according to Roy Morgan.
A further 993,000 Australians are under-employed – working part-time and looking for more work. This is 18,000 more than a month ago, and represents 8.1% of the workforce* (unchanged this month).
In total 2.222 million Australians were unemployed or under-employed in November, 84,000 more than last month, 18.1% (up 0.3%) of the workforce. This is up a significant 240,000 over the past 12 months since November 2011.
Driving this rise over the past 12 months is the increase in part-time unemployment — 676,000 (up 192,000 since November 2011), while under-employment is up 55,000 to 993,000 and full-time unemployment has barely changed at 553,000 (down 7,000).
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.
