Australia’s unemployment rate rose to 4 percent in December, despite the number of employed people growing by more than the monthly average for 2024.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percent last month.
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said employment rose by 56,000 people and the number of unemployed increased by 10,000 people, lifting the unemployment rate to 4 percent.
“The number of employed people grew by 0.4 percent in December 2024, slightly higher than the average monthly rise of 0.3 percent during 2024. It was also higher than the average monthly population growth of 0.2 percent over the year,” Mr Jarvis said.
“The employment-to-population ratio rose 0.1 percentage point to a new record of 64.5 percent. This was 0.5 percentage points higher than a year ago and 2.3 percentage points higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mr Jarvis said underemployment rate fell 0.1 percent to 6 percent in December, which was 0.6 percent lower than December 2023, and 2.7 percent lower than March 2020.
He said the youth underemployment rate (for 15 to 24-year-olds) of 14.1 percent in December remained higher than that of the overall population, but was well below March 2020, when it was 19.1 percent.
“The youth underemployment rate for men was 12.1 percent, around 5.6 percent below March 2020, and 16.2 percent for young women, 4.3 percent lower, however, recent changes in youth underemployment had been more pronounced for men than women.
“While there hasn’t been much change recently in the underemployment rate for young women, the rate for young men had been rising from mid-2022 to late 2023, when there was strong growth in employment and the number of job vacancies began to ease.
“However, this has since generally reversed throughout 2024, and their underemployment rate is now back to around where it was in late 2022,” Mr Jarvis said.
