Australia’s unemployment rate inches upwards

The unemployment rate in Australia has seen a slight rise in October, according to various reports.

Although there were discrepancies in the exact figures provided by Roy Morgan Research and the Australian Business of Statistics (ABS), both agencies seemed to agree that there were more unemployed people in the country as of last month.

Roy Morgan Research reported that unemployment stood at 10.7 per cent in October, representing approximately 1.33 million Australians in the workforce. This was an increase of 0.3 per cent from the previous month.

The research firm also found that 8.6 per cent of the Australian workforce was underemployed – that is, working only part-time or looking for more work. This figure was also an increase from September, up by 0.7 per cent.

However, the unemployment rate reported by the ABS is around half of that provided by Roy Morgan Research – 5.7 per cent, which was claimed to be an increase of 0.1 per cent over October.

These figures led Gary Morgan, Roy Morgan Research executive chairman, to urge the government to take action.

"Australia’s high level of unemployment and under-employment following the Federal Election means the new Coalition Government must undertake urgent reforms to restore the confidence of Australian businesses in the Australian economy to ensure the ‘drivers’ of employment are pointing in the right direction," he said in a November 7 statement.

The increasing proportion of Australians who are either unemployed or underemployed will certainly be of interest to those in the recruitment sector.

With the number of people actively looking for work having increased by 36,000 from September to October, as reported by Roy Morgan Research, it's a good time for recruitment agencies to bolster their candidate search capabilities in the drive for talent.

Recruitment software such as FastTrack360 provides these agencies with the powerful tools to locate the most ideal people for their clients.