This continues to be a tough labour market for businesses, as confirmed by the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The unemployment rate is at historically low levels, despite increasing from 3.5% in June to 3.7% in July. That alone suggests there’s little slack in the labour market.
But what makes things trickier is that the participation rate – which measures the share of people who either have a job or are looking for one – is so high. As the graph shows, the participation rate is at near-record levels, despite a dip in July from 66.8% to 66.7%.
Taken together, those two data points suggest that almost everyone who wants a job already has one.
So if you’re wondering why your business is finding it hard to attract and retain talent – now you know why.