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City of MelbourneCommunity profile

City of Melbourne

Employment status

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In 2021, 42,050 non-English speakers who were living in the City of Melbourne were employed, of which 52.6% were working full time and 40.7% part time.

For the non-English speaking population, being able to find work and participate in the local economy is a very important step to settling into Australia. High employment can indicate an engaged migrant community, or perhaps a large contingent on work-sponsored visas. A high level of unemployment or low participation rate (the percentage of the population in the labour force) can indicate a community of recent migrants with difficulties adjusting to economic life in Australia, and perhaps with a reliance on government benefits.

Differences in employment status for the local non-English speaking population may be related to the age and length of time that population has been in Australia, proportion of second-generation migrants, as well as qualification levels.

Please note that due to lockdowns in many parts of Australia and the availability of JobKeeper, users may find that some groups have a significant increase in the ‘Employed, away from work’ category. Use these data with caution when comparing over time to previous Censuses.

Employment data should be looked at in conjunction with Age Structure and Qualification data for the recent arrivals.

Q:

Derived from the Census question:

'Last week did the person have a full time or part time job of any kind?'

Employment status
City of Melbourne - non-English20212016Change
Employment statusNumber%City of Melbourne - Total populationNumber%City of Melbourne - Total population2016 to 2021
Employed42,05090.292.427,65083.189.1+14,400
Employed full-time22,09847.454.215,85647.657.2+6,242
Employed part-time17,10536.731.810,51631.627.5+6,589
Employed, away from work2,8476.16.31,2783.84.3+1,569
Unemployed (Unemployment rate)4,5559.87.65,63916.910.9-1,084
Looking for full-time work2,1224.63.61,7925.43.9+330
Looking for part-time work2,4335.24.03,84711.67.0-1,414
Total Labour Force46,605100.0100.033,289100.0100.0+13,316
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information
Labour force status
City of Melbourne - non-English20212016Change
Labour force statusNumber%City of Melbourne - Total populationNumber%City of Melbourne - Total population2016 to 2021
Total labour force (Participation rate)46,60572.270.133,28953.757.5+13,316
Not in the labour force17,54927.222.428,37945.831.3-10,830
Labour force status not stated4200.77.52790.511.2+141
Total persons aged 15+64,574100.0100.061,947100.0100.0+2,627
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information

Dominant groups

The size of the City of Melbourne's non-English speaking labour force in 2021 was 46,605 persons, of which 17,105 were employed part-time and 22,098 were full time workers.

Analysis of the employment status (as a percentage of the labour force) of non-English speakers in the City of Melbourne in 2021 compared to the total population in the City of Melbourne shows that there was a lower proportion in employment, and a higher proportion unemployed. Overall, 90.2% of the non-English speaking labour force was employed, and 4.6% unemployed, compared with 92.4% and 3.6% respectively for the total population in the City of Melbourne.

Analysis of the non-English speaking labour force participation rate of the population in the City of Melbourne in 2021 shows that there was a higher proportion in the labour force (72.2%) compared with the total population in the City of Melbourne (70.1%).

Emerging groups

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of non-English speaking population employed in the City of Melbourne showed an increase of 14,400 people and the number unemployed showed an increase of 330 people. In the same period, the number of people in the labour force showed an increase of 13,316 people, or 40.0%.

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