Australia
AU desk: Australia first; New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, euro area, Korea and Taiwan alongside.
−0.18 pp
As of 2025 | % of population ages 15+
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 66.54% |
| 2024 | 66.72% |
| 2023 | 67.02% |
| 2022 | 66.89% |
| 2021 | 66.15% |
| 2020 | 65.03% |
| 2019 | 66.09% |
| 2018 | 65.80% |
| 2017 | 65.25% |
| 2016 | 64.95% |
| 2015 | 65.08% |
| 2014 | 64.79% |
| 2013 | 65.03% |
| 2012 | 65.25% |
| 2011 | 65.51% |
| 2010 | 65.48% |
| 2009 | 65.50% |
| 2008 | 65.56% |
| 2007 | 65.28% |
| 2006 | 64.85% |
| 2005 | 64.51% |
| 2004 | 63.58% |
| 2003 | 63.72% |
| 2002 | 63.51% |
Labour force participation is the share of people ages 15 and over who are employed or unemployed (SL.TLF.CACT.ZS). It is not the unemployment rate. Latest: 66.54% in 2025.
A falling unemployment rate can coincide with people leaving the labour force. This series is the usual check. From 1990 to 2025 (36 years): mean 64.65%, median 64.90%; low 62.60% (1993), high 67.02% (2023).
Source: World Bank Open Data. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (terms).
This series is the labour-force participation rate for people aged 15 and over: the share who are either employed or unemployed and looking for work. The source is World Bank Open Data indicator SL.TLF.CACT.ZS, an ILO modelled estimate. It measures who is in the labour market, not what they earn, and it is not the same as the employment ratio: unemployed people count in the numerator here but not there.
Participation reflects retirement ages, education, caring responsibilities and social norms as well as job availability, so levels differ for reasons that have little to do with the unemployment rate. The series is modelled from national surveys and censuses and is revised periodically. Use the chart and range buttons to follow one economy and the ranked ledger to compare latest published years. Treat small cross-country gaps with caution, because the estimate carries uncertainty where survey coverage is thin. A fall can mean people left the labour force rather than lost work, so read it with the unemployment rate.
The Australia desk places Australia first and shows New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, the euro area, China, Japan, Korea and Singapore alongside it where the source publishes them. It republishes the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates as the all-countries pages, filtered to this set, without recalculating them for the desk. The headline unemployment page also shows Taiwan from the IMF World Economic Outlook, which the World Bank does not publish.
Use the Country selector to move between desks, the Chart and Table tabs for two views of the same data, and the range buttons to change the window. Indicator codes, sources and licences are named on every page so the figure can be traced. A blank row means the source has no value for the selected series, not that the rate has been set to zero. No value is estimated beyond what the source publishes.