In February 2026, 822,800 part-time workers in Australia preferred and were available to work more hours, representing 18% of all part-time workers. This marks a 3,900 increase from February 2025. Nearly half (48%) of these workers preferred full-time hours, while 52% sought additional part-time hours. Of those seeking more hours, 43% took active steps to find additional work, including job advertisements (29%), employer applications (21%), and responding to ads (18%). Men aged 65+ preferred the most extra hours (15 weeks), while women aged 65+ were least likely to prefer full-time work (19%). The data, sourced from the PJSM survey, shows 42% of part-time workers seeking more hours preferred an extra 10 hours or less, with median durations of insufficient hours decreasing from 26 weeks in February 2025 to 17 weeks in February 2026.
© 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.