The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released labour market data for the month of January, which reveals that the youth labour market (i.e Australians aged 15-24) continues to recover at a much slower pace than the broader market.
Australia’s youth unemployment rate was 13.9% in January, the same as December. This compares to an unemployment rate of 5.0% across the rest of the labour market.
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Youth jobs fell by 8,100 in January versus a 37,300 increase in jobs across the rest of the labour market, with youth jobs still 89,900 below their March pre-COVID level:
In annual growth terms, youth jobs have fallen by 3.9% versus a 0.3% increase across the rest of the labour market.
Full-time youth jobs have declined by 72,400 since March, versus a 17,500 decline in part-time jobs:
In annual growth terms, full-time jobs are down 9.5% year-on-year versus no change (0.0%) in part-time jobs.
The participation rate fell by 0.2% to 68.4% in January and is now 0.1% above its March pre-COVID level:
This largely explains why the unemployment rate was steady despite the reduction in jobs.
Youth underemployment remained steady at 15.8% as did underutilisation (unemployment and underemployment combined), which remained at 29.8%:
Clearly, the youth labour market is recovering at a much slower pace than the broader labour market.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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