In February Australian unemployment increased to 11.5% as full-time and part-time employment fell significantly
In February 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment increased 214,000 to 1,834,000 (up 1.4% to 11.5% of the workforce) with significantly more people looking for work.
The driver of this increase in unemployment were the large falls in full-time employment, down 273,000 to 9,356,000, and a drop in part-time employment, down 99,000 to 4,767,000, which forced many people in the labour market into looking for new work.
In the years prior to the pandemic, employment generally fell in February, with declines in 11/13 years from 2007-2019, although this trend was disrupted by the unprecedented market conditions from 2020-2024.
The February Roy Morgan Unemployment estimates were obtained by surveying an Australia-wide cross section of people aged 14+. A person is classified as unemployed if they are looking for work, no matter when. The ‘real’ unemployment rate is presented as a percentage of the workforce (employed & unemployed).
- Australian workforce contracts as some people leaving employment also leave the workforce:
In February the Australian workforce dropped 158,000 to 15,957,000 with employment down by a large 372,000 to 14,123,000 driving the fall. Many of those leaving employment, but not all, became unemployed, which increased 214,000 to 1,834,000 – the highest for over four years since February 2021.
- Overall employment dropped in February driven by declines in full-time and part-time employment:
Australian employment dropped 372,000 to 14,123,000. This decrease was driven by falls in both full-time employment, down 273,000 to 9,356,000, and part-time employment, down 99,000 to 4,767,000.
- Unemployment increased in February driven by a surge in people looking for part-time work:
1,834,000 Australians were unemployed (11.5% of the workforce, up 1.4%), an increase of 214,000 from January. The increase in unemployment was driven by an increase in people looking for part-time work, up 221,000 to 1,058,000, while the number looking for full-time work was virtually unchanged at 776,000.
- Overall unemployment and under-employment was up 0.3% to 21.7% in February:
In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.63 million Australians (10.2% of the workforce) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work, down 186,000 from January. In total 3.46 million Australians (21.7% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in February.
- Comparisons with two years ago, soon after COVID-19 restrictions ended in late 2022, show a rapidly increasing workforce is driving employment growth (2025 vs. 2023):
The workforce in February was at a near record 15,957,000 (up 919,000 from two years ago) – comprised of 14,123,000 employed Australians (up 606,000 from two years ago).
ABS Comparison
Roy Morgan’s unemployment figure of 11.5% is clearly more than double the ABS estimate of 4.1% for January and is in line with the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 10.1%.
The latest monthly figures from the ABS indicate that the people working fewer hours in January 2025 due to illness, injury or sick leave was 377,300. Significantly, this is over 120,000 higher than the pre-pandemic average of the five years to January 2019 (248,260) – a difference of 129,040.
If this higher than pre-pandemic average of workers (129,040) who are working fewer hours due to illness, injury or sick leave is added to the combined ABS unemployment and under-employment figure of 1,549,000 we find a total of 1,678,040 people could be considered unemployed or under-employed, equivalent to 11.0% of the workforce.
Roy Morgan Unemployment & Under-employment (2019-2025)
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source January 2019 – February 2025. Average monthly interviews 5,000.
Note: Roy Morgan unemployment estimates are actual data while the ABS estimates are seasonally adjusted.
Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan, says the latest Roy Morgan employment estimates for February shows unemployment (11.5%) increasing to its highest for four years since February 2021 as the pre-pandemic trend of falling employment in February returns:
“The latest Roy Morgan employment estimates for February show total Australian unemployment or under-employment increasing for a third straight month, up 29,000 to 3,462,000 (21.7% of the workforce, up 0.3%). This is the highest rate of overall unemployment and under-employment for over four years since January 2021 (21.7% of the workforce) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The increase was driven by a substantial rise in unemployment, which jumped 214,000 to 1,834,000, while under-employment fell by almost as much, down 186,000 to 1,628,000. This is the highest number of unemployed for four years since February 2021.
“The rise in unemployment is directly linked to falling employment, with both full-time employment, down 273,000, and part-time employment, down 99,000, falling in February. In the pre-pandemic period of 2007-19 this was a regular occurrence with employment falling in 11/13 years. However, this trend was disrupted during the pandemic, and the record population growth of the last few years.
“Since the last Federal Election in May 2022 the population and workforce have both increased by over 1.5 million and well over 800,000 jobs have been created in under three years. The soaring population has meant record strong employment growth over the last two years and has been far faster than the long-term average population growth of under 300,000 per year so far this century.
“As well as the disruptions caused by the pandemic and the subsequent population growth, a ‘cost of living crisis’, as inflation and interest rates hit multi-decade highs, has forced many people to seek employment, or stay in the labour force longer than expected to make ends meet.
“In January 2020 the workforce engagement (% of the population that are in the workforce) was around 67%, while today that has increased to around 70% – an increase of 3% points. As more people join, and those already in employment remain, in the workforce, the demand for employment will obviously increase rapidly, especially in a country featuring high population growth of people of working ago.
“As inflation has now returned to the Reserve Bank’s target range of 2-3% over the course of the cycle the pressures on many Australians to remain in the workforce longer to ‘make ends meet’ are set to lessen and this could lead to more people being willing to leave the workforce earlier than planned.
“This reduction in inflationary pressures, as well as slowing population growth compared to recent years, should contribute to more normal employment patterns reasserting themselves throughout the economy during the remainder of 2025 and into next year.
“Looking back since the last Federal Election the rapidly increasing Australian population and workforce has led to a persistently high level of labour under-utilisation. Since July 2022 total unemployed and under-employed has been permanently above 2.5 million, and since March 2023 total labour under-utilisation has been stuck above 2.6 million and averaged nearly 3 million over the last two years.
“These figures show that as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gets set to call a federal election in the next few weeks for mid-May, the Federal Government needs to provide greater policy clarity on how it will tackle the issues surrounding ‘cost of living’ as well as implementing policies to deal with the persistently high levels of unemployment and under-employment throughout the country.”
This Roy Morgan survey on Australia’s unemployment and ‘under-employed’* is based on weekly interviews of 935,035 Australians aged 14 and over between December 2008 and February 2025 and includes 6,008 telephone and online interviews in February 2025. *The ‘under-employed’ are those people who are in part-time work or freelancers who are looking for more work.
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
