Over the past year, Australia has consistently seen over 3 million individuals either unemployed or seeking additional work, according to a recent report.

Data from Roy Morgan, a prominent market research firm, reveals that the Australian economy is currently facing challenges in generating sufficient employment opportunities. This analysis highlights the difficulties in job creation.

In the previous month, the nation’s ‘real’ unemployment figure, which accounts for both employed and unemployed members of the workforce, remained stable at approximately 1,628,000—representing 10% of the labor force.

When including ‘shadow’ workers, such as freelancers and part-time employees eager for more hours, an additional 1.7 million people are seeking increased employment.

Roy Morgan’s latest estimates indicate a rise in both unemployment and underemployment last month, reaching 3,337,000 individuals, or 21% of the workforce.

Michele Levine, the CEO of Roy Morgan, notes that the combined figures for unemployment and underemployment continue to hover around 3.3 million.

“A look at the employment market over the last year shows little change in the overall picture with employment down from a year ago by 91,000 to 14,339,000,” she said.

“Full-time employment is down 64,000 to 9,203,000, and part-time employment is down 27,000 to 5,136,000 from a year ago indicating the economy has struggled to create new jobs over this period.”

Levine says the low level of productivity in the economy is stifling growth and leading to the labour market stagnating.

Figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was steady at 4.3 per cent in November – roughly in line with market expectations.

The number of unemployed and employed people fell in November, by 2000 and by 21,000 respectively.

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.