% of youth labour force - Source frequency: monthly · Methodology · Corrections
Australia's youth unemployment rate (15–24) was 10.2% as of February 2026. The long-term trend is broadly stable, though the recent 12-month direction is falling. Unemployment rate for young Australians aged 15 to 24. Typically much higher than the headline rate, currently around 9% versus the overall 4%. 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 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australian Capital TerritoryACT | 7.8% of youth labour force | |
| 2 | Western AustraliaWA | 9% of youth labour force | |
| 3 | New South WalesNSW | 9.2% of youth labour force | |
| 4 | VictoriaVIC | 9.8% of youth labour force | |
| 5 | QueenslandQLD | 10.5% of youth labour force | |
| 6 | South AustraliaSA | 11% of youth labour force | |
| 7 | TasmaniaTAS | 11.2% of youth labour force | |
| 8 | Northern TerritoryNT | 12% of youth labour force |
Unemployment rate for young Australians aged 15 to 24. Typically much higher than the headline rate, currently around 9% versus the overall 4%.
Youth unemployment is a leading indicator of long-term disadvantage. Prolonged joblessness early in life permanently scars career prospects and earnings.
GREEN = favourable trend within acceptable band of baseline. AMBER = flat or mild change. RED = unfavourable trend beyond threshold.
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.
