The results showed that more than 161,000 extra people found work. However, underemployment was still up 233,000 to 1.56 million (10.5 per cent of the workforce) and overall unemployment and underemployment increased 72,000 to 2.76 million (18.6 per cent of the workforce).
The report also revealed the workforce was up 57,000 in September driven by increasing employment and was at a record high of 14,907,000 (up 57,000 from August) that comprised a new record high of 13,705,000 employed Australians (up 218,000) and 1,202,000 unemployed Australians looking for work (down 161,000).
Australian employment increased by 218,000 to a new record high of 13,705,000 in September. The increase was driven by a rise in full-time employment, up 197,000 to 8,881,000, and an increase in part-time employment, up 21,000 to a new record high of 4,824,000.
More than 1.2 million Australians were unemployed (8.1 per cent of the workforce) in September, a decline of 161,000 from August with fewer people looking for full-time work, down 57,000 to 535,000, and also fewer people looking for part-time work, down 104,000 to 667,000.
In addition to the unemployed, 1.56 million Australians (10.5 per cent of the workforce) were underemployed — working part-time but looking for more work, up by 233,000 from August.
In total, 2.76 million Australians (18.6 per cent of the workforce) were either unemployed or underemployed in September, up 72,000 on August.
Compared to early March 2020, before the nationwide lockdown, in September 2022, there were more than 600,000 more Australians either unemployed or underemployed (+3 per cent points) even though overall employment (13,487,000) is over 830,000 higher than it was pre-COVID-19 (12,872,000).
Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 8.1 per cent for September is more than double the ABS estimate for August 2022 of 3.5 per cent. However, the ABS figures for August showed there were 761,000 workers who worked fewer hours than usual due to illness, personal injury or sick leave compared to an average of 502,580 for the month of August over the five years from August 2017 to August 2021.
This difference, which can be put down to the omicron variant of COVID-19, equated to a difference of 258,420 in August 2022 above the average for the month of August for the previous five years. If these workers are added to the 487,700 classified as unemployed, this creates a total of 746,120 — equivalent to 5.3 per cent of the workforce.
In addition, the ABS classified 5.9 per cent of the workforce (approximately 837,000 workers) as underemployed. Combining these figures adds to 1.58 million workers, around 11.2 per cent of the workforce.
Michele Levine, chief executive of Roy Morgan, said there was good news driving the rise with employment up 218,000 to 13,705,000 driven by a large increase in full-time employment.
“The rise in employment led to a decrease in unemployment. Of concern was the large increase in underemployment. Rises in part-time employment are often associated with increased underemployment as many people employed part-time would prefer to work more hours,” she said.
“The most recent wave of COVID-19 continued to rapidly decline during September with active cases of the virus dropping below 100,000 for the first time this year. The drop in active cases of COVID-19 has led to a further relaxing of restrictions with mandatory self-isolation due to end next week for anyone returning a positive test result for COVID-19.
“The full relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions this month will return the labour market to ‘normality’ with workers no longer forced to isolate for at least a week when returning a positive test. The millions of cases of COVID-19 reported this year in Australia have heavily distorted the employment situation as companies have been forced to hire additional workers to cover shortfalls due to the forced isolation of employees testing positive to COVID-19.
“One of the consequences of the isolation requirements is the increased hiring of part-time workers which hit record highs this year and led to a record level of underemployment above 1.5 million for the first time. Looking forward, the month of November will be the first since February 2020 during which COVID-19-related restrictions will not have an impact on the labour market and other influences such as increasing inflation, and supply chain challenges, will be key factors driving employment outcomes.”
