In June 2025, the unemployment rate in Australia was 4.3 percent, lower than the pre-COVID-19 unemployment rate of around five percent. During 2020, the unemployment rate in Australia spiked to 7.6 percent amidst the country's second coronavirus wave. Unemployment and underemployment rates around the country In the middle of 2023, unemployment around the country hovered between 2.9 and 4.2 percent, with South Australia leading with the highest rate of people eligible to work jobs not currently employed. New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, reported the lowest rate of unemployment at the time. Underemployment, however, was highest in Tasmania, with the country reporting a national underemployment rate of over six percent in June 2023. Some of the leading difficulties people in Australia reported as barriers to finding a job or more hours included too many other applicants for available jobs, and a lack of necessary training, qualifications, or experience. Leading industries for employment in Australia Australia’s employment landscape is made up of a wide range of jobs; however, it is dominated by the services sector, which covers a range of industries, including healthcare, education, tourism, and professional services. Healthcare and social assistance remain the country’s leading employment industry, accounting for approximately 15 percent of employed persons. Employment industries varied between males and females , with the construction industry the most popular employment industry for males in 2022, while close to one-quarter of employed females worked in the healthcare and social assistance field.

Regional unemployment rates used by the Employment Insurance program, by effective date, current month.

Youth Unemployment Rate in Australia decreased to 9.80 percent in July from 10.40 percent in June of 2025. This dataset provides - Australia Youth Unemployment Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Australia Unemployment Rate: New South Wales data was reported at 4.433 % in Mar 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 4.327 % for Feb 2025. Australia Unemployment Rate: New South Wales data is updated monthly, averaging 5.833 % from Feb 1978 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 566 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 12.400 % in Feb 1993 and a record low of 2.903 % in Jun 2023. Australia Unemployment Rate: New South Wales data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.G040: Unemployment Rate. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

Transport Performance and Analytics (TPA) provides projections of workforce at the small area (Travel Zone or TZ) level for the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA).

The GMA includes the Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven SA4, Illawarra SA4, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie SA4, and Lower Hunter, Port Stephens, and Maitland SA3s, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). TPA workforce projections are five-yearly, from 2011 to 2056 and relate to usual residents of the GMA aged 15 years and over who are employed. They are estimates of employed people based on where they reside. TPA also produces employment projections based on the workplace or job location. They refer to persons aged 15 years and over, working in the GMA regardless of their place of usual residence. The majority of the persons employed in the GMA also reside in the GMA.

Factors considered in the estimation of workforce projections include: population by age and gender; participation rates; unemployment rates; historical labour force data; past trends of employment in each industry and the forecasts of industry growth or decline in each region.

Transport Performance and Analytics (TPA) provides projections of workforce at the small area (Travel Zone or TZ) level for the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA). The GMA includes the Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven SA4, Illawarra SA4, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie SA4, and Lower Hunter, Port Stephens, and Maitland SA3s, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). TPA workforce projections are five-yearly, from 2011 to 2056 and relate to usual residents of the GMA aged 15 years and over who are employed. They are estimates of employed people based on where they reside. TPA also produces employment projections based on the workplace or job location. They refer to persons aged 15 years and over, working in the GMA regardless of their place of usual residence. The majority of the persons employed in the GMA also reside in the GMA. Factors considered in the estimation of workforce projections include: population by age and gender; participation rates; unemployment rates; historical labour force data; past trends of employment in each industry and the forecasts of industry growth or decline in each region.

Monthly Actual Data from January 1996 Covers: - Unemployment Expectations Index - Sydney. - Unemployment Expectations Index - Melbourne. - Unemployment Expectations Index - Other Capital Cities. - Unemployment Expectations Index - Metro. - Unemployment Expectations Index - Rural.

  The survey is conduct monthly by telephone and the sample size is typically 1200 households. Each respondent is characterized by: gender, age, occupation, education, political party preference, home ownership, household income, and postcode. The Survey is used to compile the following Report: The Westpac - Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Unemployment Expectations. The Report is concerned with consumers' views about whether unemployment would be more, the same or less in the coming twelve months.
  The Unemployment Expectations Index was first compiled in September 1974, on a quarterly basis. It became a monthly series in June 1993.

The workforce dataset contains monthly workforce sizes from July 2005 to June 2018 in the eight Australian capital cities with estimated stratification by indoor and outdoor workers. It is included in both csv and rda format. It includes variables for:

• Year
• Month
• GCCSA (Greater Capital City Statistical Area, which is used to define capital cities)
• Date (using the first day of the month)
• fulltime: Fulltime workers
• parttime: Parttime workers
• n. Overall workers
• outorin. Estimated indoor or outdoor status

This data are derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, LM1 dataset: LM1 - Labour force status by age, greater capital city and rest of state (ASGS), marital status and sex, February 1978 onwards (pivot table). Occupational data from the 2006, 2011 and 2016 Census of Population and Housing (ABS Census TableBuilder Basic data) were used to stratify this dataset into indoor and outdoor classifications as per the "Indooroutdoor classification.xlsx" file. For the Census data, GCCSA for the place of work was used, not the place of usual residence.

Occupations were defined by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). Each 6-digit ANZSCO occupation (the lowest level classification) was manually cross-matched with their corresponding occupation(s) from the Canadian National Occupation System (NOC). ANZSCO and NOC share a similar structure, because they are both derived from the International Standard Classification of Occupations. NOC occupations listed with an “L3 location” (include main duties with outdoor work for at least part of the working day) were classified as outdoors, including occupations with multiple locations. Occupations without a listing of "L3 location" were classified as indoors (no outdoor work). 6-digit ANZSCO occupations were then aggregated to 4-digit unit groups to match the ABS Census TableBuilder Basic data. These data were further aggregated into indoor and outdoor workers.

The 4-digit ANZSCO unit groups’ indoor and outdoor classifications are listed in "Indooroutdoor classification.xlsx."

ANZSCO occupations associated with both indoor and outdoor listings were classified based on the more common listing, with indoors being selected in the event of a tie. The cross-matching of ANZSCO and NOC occupation was checked against two previous cross-matches used in published Australian studies utilising older ANZSCO and NOC versions. One of these cross-matches, the original cross-match, was validated with a strong correlation between ANZSCO and NOC for outdoor work (Smith, Peter M. Comparing Imputed Occupational Exposure Classifications With Self-reported Occupational Hazards Among Australian Workers. 2013).

To stratify the ABS Labour Force detailed data by indoors or outdoors, workers from the ABS Census 2006, 2011 and 2016 data were first classified as indoors or outdoors. To extend the indoor and outdoor classification proportions from 2005 to 2018, the population counts were (1) stratified by workplace GCCSA (standardised to the 2016 metrics), (2) logit-transformed and then interpolated using cubic splines and extrapolated linearly for each month, and (3) back-transformed to the normal population scale. For the 2006 Census, workplace location was reported by Statistical Local Area and then converted to GCCSA. This interpolation method was also used to estimate the 1-monthly worker count for Darwin relative to the rest of Northern Territory (ABS worker 1-monthly counts are reported only for Northern Territory collectively).

ABS data are owned by the Commonwealth Government under a CC BY 4.0 license. The attached datasets are derived and aggregated from ABS data.

This statistic shows the share of ethnic groups in Australia in the total population. 33 percent of the total population of Australia are english.

Australia’s population

Australia’s ethnic diversity can be attributed to their history and location. The country’s colonization from Europeans is a significant reason for the majority of its population being Caucasian. Additionally, being that Australia is one of the most developed countries closest to Eastern Asia; its Asian population comes as no surprise.

Australia is one of the world’s most developed countries, often earning recognition as one of the world’s economical leaders. With a more recent economic boom, Australia has become an attractive country for students and workers alike, who seek an opportunity to improve their lifestyle. Over the past decade, Australia’s population has slowly increased and is expected to continue to do so over the next several years. A beautiful landscape, many work opportunities and a high quality of life helped play a role in the country’s development. In 2011, Australia was considered to have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, with the average Australian living to approximately 82 years of age.

From an employment standpoint, Australia has maintained a rather low employment rate compared to many other developed countries. After experiencing a significant jump in unemployment in 2009, primarily due to the world economic crisis, Australia has been able to remain stable and slightly increase employment year-over-year.