New Labour Force data shows 76,000-person increase in employed people
Australia's unemployment rate stayed at 4.4% in June as the month recorded "stronger" movement than observed in recent years.
The latest Labour Force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed a 76,000-person rise in employment, driving the numbers to 14.8 million employed people in seasonally adjusted terms.
The rise in employment was driven by a 47,000-person rise in part-time work, pushing it to more than 4.6 million people. Full-time employment also went up by 29,300 to over 10 million people in June 2026.
"Part of the growth in employment this month came from those who were waiting to start a job in May. This represents a stronger June movement than has been observed in recent years," said Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics.
"We also continued to see higher numbers of people remaining employed this June, following elevated levels in the recent few months."
Unemployment in Australia
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people in June went up by 12,700 people to reach 686,800 for the month, according to ABS data.
"The number of unemployed rose by 13,000 people in June, which combined with the growth in employment, led to the participation rate rising by 0.3 percentage points to 67% in June," Crick said.
"People aged 55-64 years old had the largest annual growth in the participation rate, up 0.8 percentage points to 70.6%."
When it comes to hours worked, full-time hours remained flat while the number of part-time hours worked grew 1.2% in June.
"Annually, employment rose 1.7% from June 2025, and hours worked grew 1.8%," Crick said.
