Australian labour market – sharp deterioration in April (RBA will be happy!) (opens in new tab)

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 fell. There are now 10.2 per cent of available labour not being used (either unemployed or underemployment), which ma...