Australian Economy

Australia’s labour underutilisation rate plunges to 40 year low

Leith van Onselen
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released labour force data for May, with the nation’s unemployment rate steady at 3.9%; albeit off strong jobs growth of 61,000 people (+0.5%):

Unemployment rate Employment growth

The key movements are as follows:

  • unemployment rate remained at 3.9%.
  • participation rate increased to 66.7%.
  • employment increased to 13,510,900.
  • employment to population ratio increased to 64.1%.
  • underemployment rate decreased to 5.7%.
  • monthly hours worked increased by 17 million hours.

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About the author
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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