Victoria’s unemployment rate surges above 5%

Thursday 23 July 2026

Thursday’s labour force release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported a national unemployment rate of 4.4% in June, unchanged from May.

The picture was far worse in Victoria, however, where the unemployment rate jumped by 0.2% to 5.1% in June, the highest in the nation and the state’s highest reading since October 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Chart by Alex Joiner (IFM Investors)

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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.