Australia Employment Update

19 May 2020 by News Desk   |   SHARE  

Australia Employment arrangements have changed over the past ten weeks as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The proportion of Australians aged 18 years and over working paid hours increased from 55.8% in April to 59.0% in May;

Nearly half (46%) of all Australians who were working in late-April to early-May said they were working from home; and

Women were more likely than men to have been working from home (56% compared with 38%).

Australia Employment Situation

The survey collected information on the current (early May) job status of all respondents, and whether their job situation had changed in the previous two weeks.

The survey found that the proportion of people in the panel reporting they had a job had increased by 0.8 percentage points over the month, from the lowest point in the first week of April, up to 64.2%.

The proportion of people indicating that they had worked paid hours also increased, by 3.2 percentage points, up to 59.0%.

While these increases were not statistically significant, given the margin of error, it may indicate some improvement in labour market conditions.

Working from home arrangements

Nearly half (46%) of all Australians who were working in late-April to early-May said they were working from home, with one in six (17%) increasing their number of hours working from home since COVID-19.

Women were more likely than men to have been working from home (56% compared with 38%).

The majority of those who did not work from home said they were unable to due to the type of job they had (89%), rather than other reasons such as their employer not offering the option of working from home, their home situation not being conducive for work, or their home lacking access to the internet and other proper equipment.

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