Unemployment refers to those people who are willing and able to work, actively seeking work but is unable to find suitable employment. In Australia unemployment is measured by a monthly telephone survey of the labour force conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). These unemployment statistics reflect the number of people who are not working but actively seeking it. To be classified as actively seeking work the following criteria must be followed: regularly checking ads from different sources of available jobs; being willing to respond to job ads, apply for jobs with employers and attend interviews; registering with an Unemployment agency that belongs to the Job Network. The size of the labour force in 2008-09 was 11,425,300 persons, where 662,900 were classified as unemployed. The unemployment rate was therefore 5.8%.
There are seven types of unemployment. Frictional unemployment is a result from people moving between jobs or experiencing changing economic circumstances; Seasonal unemployment is categorised as specific industries or occupations that are characterised by seasonal work, possibly leading to unemployment; Structural unemployment results from a mismatch of labour skills of employees with the job vacancies; Cyclical unemployment is caused by contractions in economic activity or aggregate demand; Long-term unemployment refers to people who are unemployed for over 12months; Regional unemployment occurs when one or two major industries (e.g. TFC, PMV) in a particular geographical region reduces demand for labour, resulting in widespread unemployment; Hidden or disguised unemployment refers to those who are not included in official unemployment statistics as they have given up looking for work or are recipients of income support from a spouse.
The unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the labour force, which include all those persons employed (full time plus part-time), plus all unemployed persons as seen