A lot of Australians have found work just before the holidays.
In fact, according to the latest figures from Roy Morgan, in November 2023 Australian employment hit a record high of over 14 million for the first time with over 9 million now employed full-time and over 5 million employed part-time.
However, despite surging employment – up by 430,000 compared to a year ago – a massive 3.04 million Australians (19.6% of the workforce) were unemployed or under-employed in November.
Significant findings from the research
According to Roy Morgan's data, ‘real’ unemployment was down 0.2% to 9.7% - an estimated 1,505,000 Australians (down 37,000) in November.
If you've been following their figures Roy Morgan have always quotes higher "real" unemployment figures that the ABS. More on that below.
Roy Morgan reported that more people were looking for full-time jobs (up 20,000 to 626,000) but many fewer people looking for part-time jobs (down 57,000 to 879,000) compared to a month ago.
In addition, there were a further 1,532,000 Australians (down 45,000) now under-employed.
- Employment increased to a new record high in November with record-high part-time employment:
Australian employment increased by 51,000 to a new record high of 14,010,000 in November.
The increase was due to a rise in part-time employment, up 52,000 to a new record high of 5,002,000 while full-time employment was virtually unchanged at 9,008,000.
- Unemployment was down in November with significantly fewer people looking for part-time work:
In November 1,505,000 Australians were unemployed (9.7% of the workforce), a decrease of 37,000 from October.
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There were 879,000 (down 57,000) looking for part-time work but 626,000 (up 20,000) now looking for full-time work.
- The workforce increased by almost 600,000 from a year ago to a record high of over 15.5 million people:
The workforce in November was 15,515,000 (up 14,000 from October, and up a massive 597,000 from a year ago) – comprised of 14,010,000 employed Australians (up 51,000 from a month ago) and 1,505,000 unemployed Australians looking for work (down 37,000).
- Overall unemployment and under-employment down 0.5% points in November to 19.6%:
In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.53 million Australians (9.9% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, down 45,000 from October.
In total 3.04 million Australians (19.6% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in November.
Roy Morgan highlighted that compared to early March 2020, before the nationwide lockdown, in November 2023 there were almost 900,000 more Australians either unemployed or under-employed (+4% points) even though overall employment (14,010,000) is over 1.1 million higher than it was pre-COVID-19 (12,872,000).
Comparison with ABS data
Roy Morgan noted that their unemployment figure of 9.7% is more than double the ABS estimate of 3.7% for October but is almost identical with the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 10.0%.
The latest monthly figures from the ABS indicate that the number of people working fewer hours in October 2023 due to illness, injury or sick leave was 453,300.
This is around 102,000 higher than the pre-pandemic average of the six years to October 2019 (351,750) – a difference of 101,550.
If this higher than pre-pandemic average of workers (101,550) is added to the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 1,479,400 we find a total of 1,580,950 people could be considered unemployed or under-employed, equivalent to 10.7% of the workforce.
