We dig underneath Australia’s labour force headlines by looking at movements of people between employment, unemployment and outside the labour force.
Some key takeaways include:
The share of workers becoming unemployed remains very low but has increased, particularly for males (which has happened during prior downturns).
There has also been a rising propensity for Australians outside of the labour force to move into unemployment.
The lack of full-time employment growth since mid-2023 is largely because of a sharp fall in part-time workers shifting into full-time work (rather than full-timers losing hours and becoming part-time).
Youth labour market conditions have softened. Notably, young ‘outsiders’ - those not in a job - are transitioning into employment at much lower rates amid very sharp growth in the 15-24 year old population.
