21,822,060
By Kylie Saunders, General Manager, Strategic Sales

21,822,060

This projection is based on the estimated resident population of Australia at 31 December 2008 and assumes growth since then of:

• one birth every 1 minute and 47 seconds,
• one death every 3 minutes and 47 seconds,
• a net gain of one international migrant every 2 minutes and 23 seconds leading to
• an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 24 seconds.

These assumptions are consistent with those used for Series B in Population Projections, Australia

Labour Force Underutilisation Rate
Labour underutilisation is the extent to which available labour is underutilised - either through unemployment or underemployment. The extent to which available labour is underutilised is of interest from a number of perspectives. From an economic perspective, there is interest in the amount of spare capacity in the labour supply and its potential to contribute to the production of goods and services - there is a strong correlation between movements in unemployment and underemployment over the economic cycle. From a social viewpoint, there is concern that people whose aspirations for work are not being met may suffer financially, personally and/or socially.

The labour force underutilisation rate is defined as the number of unemployed persons plus the number of underemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the number of persons in the labour force.

In trend terms, the labour force underutilisation rate stands at 13.4% in May 2009, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from February 2009.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the labour force underutilisation rate stands at 13.4% in May 2009, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from February 2009.

In trend terms, the number of underemployed persons increased by 54,900 persons to stand at 866,700 persons in May 2009. The number of underemployed persons represents 7.7% of the labour force, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from February 2009.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of underemployed persons increased by 34,600 persons to stand at 870,800 persons in May 2009. The number of underemployed persons represents 7.6% of the labour force, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from February 2009.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.