The Roy Morgan employment series data showed that in July unemployment increased 0.7 per cent points to 8.5 per cent.
Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 7.8 per cent for June is more than double the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate for June 2022 of 3.5 per cent. However, the ABS figures for June showed there were 776,800 workers who worked fewer hours than usual due to illness, personal injury or sick leave compared to an average of 441,220 for the month of June over the five years from June 2017 to June 2021.
This difference, which can be put down to the omicron variant of COVID-19, equated to a difference of 335,580 in June 2022 above the average for the month of June for the previous five years. If these workers are added to the 493,900 classified as unemployed this creates a total of 829,480 – equivalent to 5.9 per cent of the workforce. In addition, the ABS classifies 6.1 per cent of the workforce (approximately 865,000 workers) as underemployed. Combining these figures added to 1.7 million workers, around 12.0 per cent of the workforce.
The rise in unemployment was due to the increasing size of the workforce with full-time employment, part-time employment and unemployment all increasing in July. This is the first month this year that all three indicators have increased in the same month.
Unemployment in July increased 121,000 to 1.25 million Australians (8.5 per cent of the workforce) while under-employment was up 44,000 to 1.27 million (8.6 per cent of the workforce). Overall unemployment and underemployment increased 165,000 to 2.52 million (17.1 per cent of the workforce).
The workforce was up 195,000 in July driven by increasing employment and unemployment: the workforce in July was 14,686,000 (up 195,000 from June) – comprised of 13,440,000 employed Australians (up 74,000) and 1,246,000 unemployed Australians looking for work (up 121,000).
Australian employment increased by 74,000 to 13,440,000 in July driven by an increase in full-time employment, up 8,000 to 8,884,000. This represented second straight record high for full-time employment during the early months of the new Albanese government. There was a more significant rise in part-time employment, up 66,000 to 4,556,000 in July.
More than 1.2 million Australians were unemployed (8.5 per cent of the workforce) in July, an increase of 121,000 from June with more people looking for full-time work, up 85,000 to 494,000, and also more people looking for part-time work, up 36,000 752,000.
In addition to the unemployed, 1.27 million Australians (8.6 per cent of the workforce) were underemployed – working part-time but looking for more work, up by 44,000 from June.
In total 2.52 million Australians (17.1 per cent of the workforce) were either unemployed or underemployed in July, up 165,000 on June.
Compared to early March 2020, before the nationwide lockdown, in June 2022 there were almost 400,000 more Australians either unemployed or underemployed (+1.5 per cent points) even though overall employment (13,440,000) is over 500,000 higher than it was pre-COVID-19 (12,872,000).
