Yesterday’s labour force data for August revealed some more green shoots for Australia’s youth. Despite the trend unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 years old edging up slightly to 13.6%, versus 4.7% unemployment for the rest of the labour market, there was strong growth in the number of jobs and a continued decline in the labour force participation rate.
As you can see in the next chart, total employment growth for those aged 15-24 years of age has been more or less negative since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), whilst the rest of the labour force has experienced positive growth. However, since December 2014, employment growth has turned positive with a strongly improving trend (see next chart).
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