Roy Morgan Research says that in August 1.324 million Australians were unemployed (10.2% of the workforce). This is similar to a year ago (down 8,000, or 0.2%). The “real” unemployment figures of 10.2% are substantially higher than the current ABS estimate for July 2017 (5.6%).
However more Australians are now under-employed than this time last year. 1.241 million (9.5%) Australians are under-employed (looking for work or looking for more work), up a significant 324,000 (2.4%) in a year.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source October 2005 – August 2017. Average monthly interviews 4,000.
This aligns with our own data on mortgage stress, which pointed to under-employment being one of the prime drivers of financial difficulty for many households.
