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AS THE WORKFORCE SHRINKS AND MANY AUSTRALIANS STOP LOOKING FOR WORKFinding No. 4799 - This Roy Morgan survey on Australia’s unemployment and ‘underemployed’* is based on weekly interviews covering January 2007 – June 2012 and in total 286,527 Australians aged 14 and over were interviewed face-to-face including 4,491 interviews in June 2012.: July 05, 2012In June 2012 an estimated 1.169 million Australians were unemployed, an increase of 172,000 in a month, and the Australian workforce* was 12,009,000, (down 204,000 in a month) — comprising 7,351,000 full-time workers (down 289,000 since June 2011); 3,489,000 part-time workers (down 91,000 since June 2011) and 1,169,000 looking for work (up a large 324,000 since June 2011) according to Roy Morgan.The increase in the headline unemployment estimate to 9.7% (up 1.5% in a month) is driven by several inter-related points: an increase in the number of Australians looking for work (up 172,000 in a month) and a much larger reduction in the number of employed Australians (down 376,000 in a month to 10.84 million) and a net reduction in the workforce (down 204,000) — as many Australians simply stop looking for work.A further 931,000 Australians are underemployed - working part-time and looking for more work. This is 176,000 fewer than a month ago, and represents 7.8% of the workforce* — down 1.2% in a month. The reduction in underemployment accompanying an increase in unemployment is driven by movements in the part time workforce. Specifically in June the number of Australians in part time employment dropped 370,000 in a month — this represents the vast majority of job losses over the last month. When part-time workers lose their jobs, they are no longer looking for ‘extra’ work they are looking for work or give up — either way the number of underemployed falls even as unemployment rises.In total 2.1 million Australians were unemployed or underemployed in June. This is 4,000 less than last month, 17.5% (up 0.3%) of the workforce.The latest Roy Morgan unemployment estimate of 9.7% is now 4.6% above the 5.1% currently quoted by the ABS for May 2012.“Drivers of the latest unemployment figures are unusually complex. The Roy Morgan ‘headline’ unemployment estimate (now 9.7%) is based on the number of people who are looking for work expressed as a percentage of the Australian workforce. The workforce is not fixed — it varies with school terms, weather, the economy and employment 'publicity & outlook' and people’s perceptions of their own economic situation. In June the Australian workforce was down 204,000 since May. The Roy Morgan June unemployment survey was taken after significant publicity about retrenchments by Qantas, the banks and manufacturing companies, and the seemingly contradictory need for the mining industry to import a large number of skilled workers from overseas.“When people think there is little chance of getting a job — many simply stop looking — they move out of the workforce. Moreover June was much colder than May and many people had received or were about to receive the carbon tax ‘reimbursements' — both ‘good reasons’ why people would stop looking for work or stop their part-time work!“Overall employment fell sharply in June to 10,840,000 (down 376,000) and is now the lowest since July 2011 (10,802,000). Full-time employment was virtually unchanged at 7,351,000 (down 6,000), but part-time employment fell significantly by 370,000 to 3,489,000.“The latest Roy Morgan unemployment estimate of 9.7% is now 4.6% above the 5.1% figure currently quoted by the ABS for May 2012. The refusal of the Federal Government, Federal Opposition and RBA to acknowledge Australia’s ‘true’ high unemployment estimate is a major concern as it allows the RBA to keep interest rates artificially high when they should reduce them by at least one percent — doing this would take pressure off the high Australian dollar which is causing real difficulties for farmers and manufacturers.”Read more: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4799/