% of youth labour force - Source frequency: monthly · Methodology · Corrections
Australia's youth unemployment rate (15–24) was 10.8% as of August 2026. Unemployment rate for young Australians aged 15 to 24. Typically around double the headline unemployment rate. Youth unemployment is a leading indicator of long-term disadvantage. Prolonged joblessness early in life permanently scars career prospects and earnings. Data is sourced from ABS Labour Force Survey (Cat. 6202.0) — age breakdown and updated monthly.
Ranked by latest value (lower is better)
| Rank | State | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australian Capital TerritoryACT | 8.7% of youth labour force |
| 2 | South AustraliaSA | 9% of youth labour force |
| 3 | New South WalesNSW | 9.2% of youth labour force |
| 4 | TasmaniaTAS | 9.2% of youth labour force |
| 5 | QueenslandQLD | 9.3% of youth labour force |
| 6 | Western AustraliaWA | 9.4% of youth labour force |
| 7 | Northern TerritoryNT | 9.5% of youth labour force |
| 8 | VictoriaVIC | 10.4% of youth labour force |
Unemployment rate for young Australians aged 15 to 24. Typically around double the headline unemployment rate.
Youth unemployment is a leading indicator of long-term disadvantage. Prolonged joblessness early in life permanently scars career prospects and earnings.
This data is sourced programmatically from official statistical APIs and data feeds (ABS Labour Force Survey (Cat. 6202.0) — age breakdown), updated monthly. The source link above points to the human-readable publication page, which presents the same underlying data in a different format (e.g. Excel workbook, PDF release). Our pipeline fetches the machine-readable version automatically and converts it to the standardised format shown here.
See all sources and methodology on the data sources page.
