What’s the unemployment rate in your region? This data tells you

Do you feel like the unemployment rate doesn’t reflect the reality of where you’re living?

Australia’s headline unemployment rate is currently 3.8 per cent, in seasonally adjusted terms.

But that’s a national figure, so it masks big differences in labour markets across the country, and within cities themselves.

For example, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where many of Australia’s rich and powerful live, the local unemployment rate is estimated to be just 2.8 per cent, in original terms.

But 25 kilometres to the west in Parramatta it’s estimated to be 5.5 per cent, and in south-west Sydney it’s 5.6 per cent.

Those numbers come from new labour market data which the Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released on Thursday, and which it will be publishing every month.

What do they say about your area?

The disparity in Australia’s labour markets

In March, the lowest unemployment rate in the new dataset was in Sydney’s Sutherland region, the home of former prime minister Scott Morrison.

That was an estimated 2.2 per cent.

The second-lowest unemployment rate, at 2.4 per cent, was in Sydney’s northern beaches region, where well-known economists and corporate executives reside.

At the other end of the spectrum, the highest unemployment rates were concentrated in Queensland.

The highest was in outback Queensland, at 6.6 per cent.

The second-highest unemployment rate was in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, at 6.4 per cent, followed by Logan-Beaudesert and Moreton Bay North, with rates of 6.3 per cent.

In the map of Australia above, the labour market regions are displayed at Statistical Area 4 level. All numbers are in original terms.

If the map above doesn’t zoom in enough for your liking, you can search the table below to find the unemployment rate for the area you’re living in. 

Use the arrow keys in the top right-hand corner of the table to flip through the pages.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, says the new regional labour market data will meet growing demand for more targeted information for local communities.

“This new data will provide regions across Australia with a much better indication of the state of their labour market and how it’s changing over time,” he said.

“Regional labour market information is some of the most sought-after information the ABS produces, so it’s exciting to release significantly improved data.”

The ABS says it was able to vastly improve the quality of its existing regional labour market data after receiving a dedicated $3.2 million funding boost in the 2022-23 federal budget (the former Morrison government’s final budget).

Mr Jarvis says the quality of the revised data is better across all regions, with the greatest improvements outside of the capital cities.

“Less populated areas, such as the central parts of Australia and areas outside of the capital cities, are where we see the greatest quality improvements from this new data,” he said.

“The improvements to the data for inner-city regions aren’t as large, because those areas tend to have larger populations, but the data for these regions is still noticeably better,” he said.

The ABS is also planning to release improved regional labour force estimates for lower-level areas, along with age and sex breakdowns.

Mr Jarvis said the ABS combined other datasets with its traditional labour force survey to achieve the improvements in quality of its regional employment data.

“In the past, our regional labour market statistics relied exclusively on people responding to the Labour Force Survey. While it has a very large sample, the survey isn’t designed for reporting for regional labour markets.

“This meant the data for these areas was inherently more variable than the data for Australia and the states and territories,” he said.

The ABS says its new estimates for regional unemployment rates will be included in its official “detailed” Labour Force release, which is published one week after the main Labour Force release.

The new data download will be titled “MRM1 — Modelled estimates of labour force status, by SA4 (ASGS)”.

Last year, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said when talking about “full employment” we had to become conscious of the uneven nature of employment across the country, because different labour markets could have very different employment outcomes.

His Employment White Paper, released in September, noted the difference in unemployment rates across the country.

“As at July 2023, there was an 8 percentage point difference between the highest and lowest unemployment rates across labour market regions in Australia,” the paper said.

“The persistently high unemployment experienced in some remote and regional areas, especially in northern Australia, is exacerbated by limited employment options, the lack of support services and entrenched disadvantage.”

The White Paper said the Albanese government would monitor a suite of metrics to see if progress was being made towards a more inclusive full employment in coming years, and the disparity in labour markets across Australia was an obvious one.

In its first mini-budget in October 2022, the Albanese government gave a further $4 million to the ABS to improve the frequency and detail of information on the factors that are preventing some groups from entering the workforce.

“This work aims to provide information on barriers for women, unpaid carers, people with disability, mature age people, First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse people and those living in remote areas.

“However, challenges remain in data availability and will take time to overcome,” it said.