Part-time employment rose by 46,000 as full-time roles fell by 6,000, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows
Australia's unemployment rate rose to 4.6 per cent in August 2026. All of the month's jobs growth came from part-time work, while full-time employment slipped, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
Employment increased by 39,500 people to 14,836,600 in seasonally adjusted terms. Over the same period, the number of unemployed Australians climbed by 28,200 to 722,900. The unemployment rate is up 0.2 percentage points on July's 4.5 per cent and 0.4 points higher than in August 2025 (ABS, Labour Force, Australia, August 2026).
"This month there was 39,000 more people in employment, and 28,000 more people in unemployment," said Sean Crick, head of labour statistics at the ABS.
Part-time employment rose by 45,800 to 4,642,600 people. Full-time employment fell by 6,300 to 10,193,900.
The labour force also expanded. The participation rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 67.1 per cent, with more Australians joining the jobs market to look for work.
"This August we recorded a higher proportion of people who were previously not in the labour force moving to being unemployed, compared to recent years," Crick said.
Hours worked rose 0.7 per cent to 2,009 million hours. That increase was larger than the 0.3 per cent rise in employment and recovered July's decline. "Hours worked rose by 14 million hours in August after falling by the same amount in July. This is partly due to having more employed people working zero hours last month compared to usual July months," Crick said.
Underemployment covers employed people who want, and are available for, more hours than they currently work. The underemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.2 per cent. The underutilisation rate, which combines unemployment and underemployment, held at 10.8 per cent. For a fuller picture of labour market slack, HRD Australia has examined ABS u-series data exposing the true scale of workforce underutilisation.
Younger workers were hit hardest. The youth unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points to 10.8 per cent. The unemployment rate for men increased to 4.8 per cent, while the rate for women held at 4.4 per cent.
Among the states, Victoria recorded the highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 5.2 per cent, followed by Tasmania at 5.0 per cent. New South Wales had the lowest state rate at 4.3 per cent. South Australia posted the sharpest rise, up 0.5 percentage points to 4.6 per cent, and Queensland rose 0.3 points to 4.5 per cent.
In trend terms, the Australian Capital Territory had the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.0 per cent. The August figures follow the unemployment rate rising to 4.5 per cent in July, when Victoria and Tasmania shared the highest rate.
What the unemployment figures mean for HR leaders
Over the past year, unemployment has grown faster than employment. The number of unemployed people rose by 80,000, or 12.4 per cent, while employment grew 1.6 per cent over the same period.
The ABS urged caution in reading the August month-on-month movements. It has introduced a new Supplementary Survey collection model that removes a historical adjustment applied to February and August data.
The bureau said the change may have a small effect on August's seasonally adjusted estimates, but the data remains fit for purpose. The ABS continues to recommend trend data as the best measure of the labour market.
On a trend basis, unemployment rose marginally to 4.6 per cent, employment grew 0.2 per cent and hours worked were steady.
For employers, the shift towards part-time roles, combined with a persistent pool of underemployed workers, reinforces an argument HRD Australia has made before: the workers you need may already be on your payroll.
James Keene, managing director, APAC at Employment Hero said the data highlights "resilience" despite external pressures on businesses.
"Small business owners are fighting to keep growing where demand allows," he said. Business owners that we speak to day in day out add critical nuance - operating margins are still tightly squeezed by ongoing wage inflation and the threat of further RBA rate hikes threatens to pull the handbrake on consumer demand just as momentum builds."
"What businesses need now is certainty - on rates, on wages policy, and on the cost pressures that continue to chip away at their ability to grow and hire."
