Australia’s national statistics office released preliminary estimates of labour underutilisation for April 2026 under its new “u‑series” framework. The seasonally adjusted data show 9.3% of the labour force is underutilised, with a 3.3% underemployment rate, 2.0% reduced employment rate, and 4.5% unemployment rate. In absolute terms, 735,000 employed people were underutilised and 690,000 people were unemployed, giving a total underutilisation of about 1.43 million. The figures are slightly higher than March 2026, where the underemployment rate was 3.1% and the reduced employment rate was 2.5%. The u‑series will be fully implemented in mid‑2027, extending the series back to 1978. These preliminary data will be refined as the methodology is fully rolled out.
© Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics).
The text is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This article is a summary of content originally published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Made by AI. If you spot anything of concern write us at contact@cybach.com. We’ll promptly correct irregularities.