Roy Morgan unemployment for August is out and shows still very weak labour market:
In August 2013 an estimated 1.25 million Australians (10.1% of the workforce) were unemployed. This is down 16,000 (0.0%) from last month. The Australian workforce* was 12,377,000 (down 186,000) comprising 7,440,000 full-time workers (up 26,000), 3,686,000 part-time workers (down 196,000) and 1,251,000 looking for work (down 16,000) according to the Roy Morgan monthly employment estimates. These figures do not include people who have dropped out of the workforce and given up looking.
Among those who were employed 1,006,000 Australians (8.1% of the workforce*) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time and looking for more work. This is 125,000 fewer than a month ago (down 0.9%).
In August an estimated 2.257 million Australians (18.2% of the workforce) were unemployed or under-employed. This is down 0.9%, or 141,000 from July, but much higher than 12 months ago in August 2012 (up 126,000, 0.9% from 2.131 million).
Of those looking for work an estimated 631,000 Australians (up 15,000) were looking for full-time work, while 620,000 (down 31,000) were looking for part-time work.
The latest Roy Morgan unemployment estimate of 10.1% is a substantial 4.4% more than currently quoted by the ABS for July 2013 (5.7%)
Yes, the RM series continues to finger a significantly worse labour market that the ABS with an ahistoric divergence suggesting testing underemployment:
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.
