Australia job seekers report rising competition

Competition for vacancies was the most commonly reported difficulty among Australians looking for work in 2025-26, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on October 28. About 22 per cent said there were too many applicants for available jobs, up from 15 per cent in the previous financial year.

The Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation release looks beyond the number of people employed or unemployed. It examines whether people want a job, whether they can start one and what prevents them from working or increasing their hours. The figures describe 2025-26, not conditions measured this week.

Among people who wanted a job, were looking for work and could start within four weeks, 82 per cent reported difficulties finding employment. The ABS estimated that 596,600 people were looking for work within the broader group who wanted a job and were available to start. That distinction matters: wanting work does not necessarily mean someone is actively searching.

Competition and working arrangements

The barriers differed between men and women. Too many applicants was the main difficulty reported by 27.4 per cent of men in the job-search group, compared with 16 per cent of women. For women, lacking the necessary training, qualifications or experience was slightly more common, at 16.9 per cent. The corresponding figure for men was 14.7 per cent.

Jobs with unsuitable conditions or arrangements were another obstacle. Across the group, 10.5 per cent identified this as their main difficulty, compared with 15.7 per cent who cited missing training, qualifications or experience. These are respondents' reported reasons, rather than an independent assessment of employers' recruitment decisions or the reasons each application failed.

The release also recorded demand for more hours among people already employed. Of 4.2 million people aged 18 to 75 who usually worked part-time, 803,500, or 19 per cent, preferred to work more. Nine in ten of those wanting additional hours were available to increase their work within four weeks.

Childcare affects availability to start

Around 1.2 million people aged 18 to 75 without a paid job wanted one during 2025-26. About 1 million were available immediately or within four weeks, while 160,900 were not available within that period. The latter group had increased from 129,400 in 2024-25, according to the ABS.

For women who wanted a job but could not start within four weeks, caring for children remained the most common main reason, at 40 per cent. Among mothers with children younger than 15 in that group, the proportion was 78 per cent. Neither figure describes all women or all mothers in Australia.

The childcare responses also distinguish preference from availability. Among mothers who wanted work but identified childcare as the main reason they could not start, 31 per cent preferred to stay home with their children. Another 20 per cent cited childcare being unavailable, booked out or absent locally. The survey does not treat every childcare-related barrier as a lack of places.

Flexible hours featured in the incentives people identified. Among women without a job in the relevant survey group, 34 per cent rated the ability to work part-time as very important, while 32 per cent gave that rating to finding work matching their skills and experience. For men, matching skills and experience was the leading factor at 36 per cent.

What the survey can and cannot show

The ABS methodology says the results pool interviews collected across the financial year, with a sample of approximately 21,000. Coverage excludes people aged 15 to 17, very remote areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as well as people in non-private households such as institutions. Estimates are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors.

Questions also depend on earlier answers. Someone who does not want work is not asked the same job-search questions as a person actively looking. The reported barriers therefore apply to particular groups, not automatically to the whole population. Differences in scope and sample size also mean estimates can differ from the monthly Labour Force Survey.

This is the last release of the survey in its current form. Its content will move into a new Labour Supplementary Survey, with annual calendar-year results. The first estimates for 2026, using information collected from August to December, are expected in early 2027.

Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Australia, 2025-26, its methodology and accompanying media release, October 28, 2026. © Commonwealth of Australia. Adapted under CC BY 4.0; no ABS endorsement implied.