Australia’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3 per cent in November, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), but movements have some economists worried about 2026.
ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said the unemployment rate has remained at 4.3 per cent in five of the last six months.
“Both the number of unemployed and employed people fell in November, by 2,000 and by 21,000 respectively,” he said.
Full-time employment fell by 57,000 people, with males falling by 40,000 and females by 16,000 people.
Part-time employment partly offset the fall in full-time employment, rising by 35,000. Females working part-time increased 29,000 people, whilst males rose 6,000 people in November.
“With the fall in the number of employed and unemployed people in November, the participation rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 66.7 per cent,” Crick added.
“The number of employed people has risen 1.3 per cent over the past 12 months, which is weaker than the 2.0 per cent growth in population.”
The employment-to-population ratio fell by 0.2 percentage points to 63.8 per cent this month.
Hours worked remained flat this month, and increased 1.2 per cent compared to November 2024.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said the total employment fall by 21,300 between October and November is well-off market consensus expectations of around 20,000 new jobs.
“However, around 23,000 people withdrew from the labour force over the same period, resulting in the unemployment rate being maintained at 4.3 per cent for November,” Dr Rynne said.
“What is more concerning is that the annualised rate of employment growth across the economy is now less than 1.3 per cent, well down from the 3 per cent annual rate of employment growth the Australian economy started the year off with.
Dr Rynne added that the Reserve Bank of Australia had forecast labour market outcomes similar to these results, “but they will still cause pause for thought for the board in terms of how best to set monetary policy in the new year with a labour market that is clearly weakening and an inflationary environment that has seemingly more strength to it than previously anticipated.”
The ABS data also showed that the underemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points to 6.2 per cent in November. This was 0.1 percentage points higher than November 2024, and 2.6 percentage points lower than March 2020.
“In original terms, the number of underemployed people who worked part-time, but would prefer more hours, rose 5.9 per cent over the last year,” Crick said. “This was led by males which grew 17.0 per cent, whereas females recorded a small fall of 1.7 per cent.”
The underutilisation rate, which combines the unemployment and underemployment rates, rose by 0.4 percentage points to 10.5 per cent. This was 0.5 percentage points higher than November 2024, and 3.4 percentage points lower than March 2020.
Meanwhile, trend unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 per cent in November after staying at 4.4 per cent for the last two months.
“Trend employment grew by around 21,000 people, or 0.1 per cent, in November, and 1.3 per cent in the last 12 months,” Crick said. “This is despite a fall in seasonally adjusted terms this month.
“Monthly hours worked rose 0.1 per cent, in line with the 0.1 per cent increase in employment.
“Annual growth in hours worked in November was at 1.1 per cent, which is slightly lower than the 1.3 per cent rise in employment in the last 12 months.”
The participation rate stayed at 66.8 per cent in November in trend terms, while the employment-to-population ratio stayed at 63.9 per cent.
The underemployment rate remained at 5.9 per cent, and the underutilisation rate was steady at 10.3 per cent.