The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has reported a decrease in job mobility for the first time in three years, with more people struggling to find employment in 2024 compared to previous years.
The ABS data points to a decrease in job mobility, an increase in the difficulty of finding employment and ongoing underemployment issues.
Less movement between jobs
In the 12 months to February 2024, 8% of employed individuals, or 1.1 million people, changed their employer or business, a drop from 9.5% the previous year.
This marks the lowest job mobility rate since before the pandemic, with a slight increase observed among women (8.2%) compared to men (7.9%).
Sales workers exhibited the highest mobility rate at 9.7% followed by community and personal service workers at 9.6%. But declines were noted across the board, particularly in arts and recreation services, which saw a 5.4% drop.
Anglicare deputy director Maiy Azize pointed out that the rising cost of living and increasing interest rates had deterred people from changing jobs.
The current official cash rate is 4.35%, with predictions of an increase to 4.6% at the next Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting in August.
"Younger workers, especially those aged 15 to 24, showed higher job mobility at 12.6% while only 5.3% of workers aged 45 to 64 years and 1.7% of those aged 65 and over changed jobs," noted the ABS.
Despite this, youth job mobility was 15.9% lower than in 2022 and significantly below the rates of over 20% observed two decades ago.
Aussies working several jobs
The ABS also found that more Australians are working multiple jobs due to flexible work arrangements and the increasing cost of living, which is symptomatic of a flexible job market but also demonstrates that people are struggling to make ends meet.
The number of unemployed Australians who struggled to find work also increased, with 1.9 million people seeking employment in 2024, up from 1.8 million last year.
The primary reason cited was the oversaturation of job applicants, followed by insufficient work experience and ill health or disability.
Anglicare Australia has called for the creation of more entry-level jobs to address the employment challenges. "Entry-level jobs now represent only one in 10 vacancies, compared to one in four 15 years ago," Azize told the ABC.
Underemployment remains a persistent issue, with almost half of part-time workers preferring full-time hours.
In 2024, 1.7 million employed people were underemployed, with 889,800 part-time workers seeking more hours.