Unemployment Rates Australia and England

Unemployment Rates Australia and England

Updates to Unemployment Rates in June 2015

 

2014 Update:

United Kingdom: Unemployment fell by 154,000 to below 1.97 million in the three months to the end of August, the first time it has been below two million since 2008, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.

Australia: The seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed increased by 11,000 to 746,600 in September 2014, the ABS reported.

Updates to Unemployment Rates in Sept 2014

  • 6.1% Australia – Sept 2014 (source) 8.93% Tasmania and 3.49% ACT.
  • 6.2% UK – Aug 2014 (source) North East (9.3%) and South West (4.6%).

 

This page was first published in 2009.

2009 Original Data:

Recent Unemployment rates for both Australia and the UK have recently been released, with some examples shown below:

  • 7.9 % England – June 2009
  • 5.71% Australia – July 2009

At first sight this shows that the employment situation in Australia should be better than it is in the UK.

But, we should look a bit deeper… into your actual work locations…

Let’s assume you are considering moving from the South East of England to South Australia, and so we must consider the Unemployment Rates that are relevant to those locations…

  • 5.9 % Unemployment rate South East England – June 2009
  • 6.45%Unemployment rate  South Australia – July 2009

From that information, it would appear that you may be going from the frying pan to the fire…

However, moving from the West Midlands to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory ?

  • 10.6% Unemployment rate West Midlands – June 2009
  • 2.61% Unemployment rate Australian Capital Territory – July 2009

No wonder that the people living in the ACT say that unemployment is no problem..

Although the above information may give you something to think about, it is also worth looking even deeper into the situation.  Australia is a big country and very varied.

The employment rates in Queensland for example, can vary dramatically depending on which region of the State that you are in.

For example:

  • Redlands in SE QLD has recorded an Increase of 9% employment in the last 2 years.
  • Sunshine Coast has recorded a Decrease of 7% employment in the same period.
  • Note these two example are employed persons, not Unemployed.

More Unemployment Rates Information:

UK Unemployment Rates:

Australian Unemployment Rates:

World Comparison of Unemployment Rates

A graph showing Unemployment rates for Australia, Euro area, United States and Japan:

RBA-Unemployment-Rate-comparisons

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the unemployment rate today is a bit higher because of the recession but hopefully the economy would recover soon.

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Here’s a supplementary article for those who want to know more about recent updates regarding the economy:

http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2010/2/18/fear-that-out-of-work-freelancers-not-receiving-support.aspx

Fear that out of work freelancers not receiving support

Yesterday’s unemployment figures from the Office of National Statistics showed a slight drop of 3,000 in the amount of people out of work.

This brings the total to 2.46 million. There was however a rise of 23,000 people claiming benefits over the last quarter.

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In both Australia and the UK, the official unemployed figures include more than just those that are receiving unemployment benefits.

For example:
Australia:
In 2007, there were 478,300 unemployed people of which 321,800 were receiving labour market payments. (2007 used as I cannot find later figures for those receiving labour market payments yet)

UK:
In Aug 2009 there were 2.47 million unemployed people of which 1.63 million were receiving labour market payments.

Both countries have a very similar percentage of total unemployed actually claiming benefits, of about 66%-67%

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The hours thing is actually 1 hour now, in both Australia, the UK and most other countries.
Both countries will also have numbers of people that are classed as “underemployed”.

Australia
It should be noted that ABS definitions of employment and unemployment conform with International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.
The ‘one hour criterion’ in the definition of employment is considered fundamental to the ILO definition of unemployment, which refers to a situation of being completely without work.

Unemployed persons are defined by the ABS as those civilians aged 15 years and over who, during a period of one week (called the reference week), were not employed, but were available to start work in the reference week and had actively looked for work in the previous four weeks.
http://aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rn/2006-07/07rn18.htm

UK
Official estimates of unemployment are produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) based upon the ILO (International Labour Organization) definition. Unemployment is a count of jobless people who want to work, are available to work, and are actively seeking employment. The ILO definition is used internationally, so comparisons between countries can be made, and it also allows for consistent comparisons over time.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=165“

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Another thing to consider is that the Australian government changed the laws a few years ago so that students, people on a disabilty pension, and people unemployed but not receiving unemployment benefits would not be counted as unemployed.

Also people only working say 3 hours a week still count as being employed. A lot of people working actually don’t have enough work.

So the actually figure is probably a lot higher than the official one in Australia.

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