The Australian Bureau of Statistics released preliminary u‑series estimates for May 2026, indicating that 3.9% of employed people were under‑employed, 2.3% were working reduced hours for economic reasons, and the unemployment rate stood at 4.4%. The overall labour‑force under‑utilisation rate was 9.9%. In raw numbers, 338,000 workers were in reduced employment, 570,000 were under‑employed, 58,000 overlapped both categories, and 678,000 were unemployed, bringing the total under‑utilised population to about 1.53 million. The figures are seasonally adjusted and reflect recent refinements to the method, including COVID‑19 corrections. The u‑series will be fully implemented in mid‑2027, extending the time series back to 1978. The data are preliminary and may be refined further.
© 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.