In April 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased 176,000 to 1,780,000 (up 1% to 11.2% of the workforce) with more people joining the workforce and overall employment dropping in April.
These are Roy Morgan figures and reflect actual door-to-door surveys. The ABS has unemployment at 4.0 per cent, which is way too shallow. Australia is in a retail recession. Spending is comatose and that is one reason why you are seeing so many shops for let. That and landlord greed.
The expansion in the workforce was the main driver of the increase in unemployment with 156,000 people joining the workforce lifting the number of Australians in the workforce to 15,946,000 (69.4% of Australians aged 14+). In addition, overall employment was down slightly by 20,000 to 14,166,000.
Australian workforce expanded by 156,000 in April driving the growth in unemployment:
In April the Australian workforce increased 156,000 to 15,946,000 driven by the increase unemployment, up 176,000 to 1,780,000. Overall employment fell slightly by 20,000 to 14,166,000.
Overall employment decreased in April driven by a significant fall in full-time employment:
Australian employment dropped 20,000 to 14,166,000. The decrease was driven by a drop in full-time employment; down 291,000 to 9,094,000, although part-time employment grew 271,000 to 5,072,000.
Unemployment increased in April driven by people joining the workforce and looking for jobs:
1,780,000 Australians were unemployed (11.2% of the workforce, up 1%), an increase of 176,000 from March. The increase in unemployment was driven by increases in people looking for part-time work, up 149,000 to 1,106,000, and more people looking for full-time work, up 27,000 to 674,000.
Overall unemployment and under-employment was up 1.1% to 20.4% in April:
In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.47 million Australians (9.2% of the workforce) were under- employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, up 43,000 from March. In total 3.25 million Australians (20.4% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in April.
Comparisons with three years ago, at the time of the last Federal Election (May 2022) and nearing the end of COVID-19 restrictions a few months later, show a rapidly increasing workforce has driving employment growth over the last three years (2025 vs. 2022):
The workforce in April was at a near record 15,946,000 (up 1,533,000 from May 2022) – comprised of 14,166,000 employed Australians (up 922,000 from three years ago) and 1,780,000 unemployed Australians (an increase of 611,000 since May 2022).