The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data today (May 21, 2026) – Labour Force, Australia – for April 2026 – which showed that the labour market deteriorated significantly in April. All the main indicators were moving in negative directions – employment growth fell, participation fell, unemployment increased, the employment-population ratio…
Labour Force
In the 1990s, a new industry was created in Australia. It produced nothing. But it was the federal government’s response to the political fallout from the high unemployment that had persisted since it abandoned its committent to full employment in the 1980s as neoliberal ideology became dominant and the corporate sector took control of public…
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data today (APRIL 16, 2026) – Labour Force, Australia – for March 2026 – which showed that the labour market steadied after last month’s contraction. While employment growth remained positive and was dominated by full-time work gains (as part-time employment fell), the fact that…
Regular readers will know that I hate the term NAIRU – or Non-Accelerating-Inflation-Rate-of-Unemployment – which is a concoction invented by mainstream economists to maintain unemployment at elevated levels (to keep the working class in its place) and give cover to central banks to run monetary policies that redistribute income from poor to rich. If you…
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data today (March 19, 2026) – Labour Force, Australia – for February 2026 – which showed that the labour market had gone backwards. While employment growth remained positive, full-time work fell. The participation rate rose, which in some situations indicates a positive outlook as…
I am late today because I am writing this in London after travelling the last 24 hours. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data today (February 19, 2026) – Labour Force, Australia – for January 2026 – which showed that the labour market was essentially steady in that employment kept…
Today (January 22, 2026), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data – Labour Force, Australia – for December 2025 – which showed a relatively strong increase in employment and the rising participation rate – both good signs. Taken together the demand-side of the labour market outstripped the growth in the…
I haven’t provided detailed commentary on the US labour market for a while now. To some extent the month-to-month changes are not that interesting but after a lapse, discernible trends can be detected. The US President is about to give a national address today in the context of declining poll popularity and a series of…
I should remind myself not to listen to the media (even the public broadcaster) when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases the latest labour force data – Labour Force, Australia – for November 2025 – as it did today (December 11, 2025). The commentary immediately after that data release today was the exemplification of…
For the last two months, the Australian labour market has gone backwards. The deterioration seems to have stabilised in October. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest labour force data today (November 13, 2025) – Labour Force, Australia – for October 2025, which reveals a slight drop in official unemployment and underemployment and…