Australian Economic Comment: New ABS measures of labour market spare capacity; & more slack than earlier thought

Research evidence excerpt

Australian Economic Comment: New ABS measures of labour market spare capacity; & more slack than earlier thought

Global Research

20 July 2026ab

Australian Economic Comment Economics

AustraliaNew ABS measures of labour market spare

capacity; & more slack than earlier thought Stephen Wu

Economist

stephen.wu@ubs.com

+61-2-9324 2283

George Tharenou

The ABS is introducing new, broader measures of labour market spare Economist

capacity, or underutilisation, to be known as 'u-series'. george.tharenou@ubs.com

+61-2-9324 3520

These will be 'unofficial' measures until full implementation by mid-2027.

Izzy Lowe

Together with a correction to the last two months of underemployment, the Associate Economist

preliminary u-series measures point to growing spare capacity. izzy.lowe@ubs.com

+61-2-9324 2651

A more rapid loosening in the labour market, albeit still tight, and against

rising trimmed mean CPI inflation has dovish implications for the RBA. We will Tatiana Bodrova

Associate Economist

review our cash rate view after the labour market release.

tatiana.bodrova@ubs.com

+61-29-324 2645

New, broader labour market statistics to be published

The ABS has begun to roll-out new measures of labour market spare capacity. A new set

of 14 'u-series' measures have been introduced, grouped in underemployment (UD-1,

UD-2, UD-3, UD-4), reduced employment (RE-0, RE-1), unemployed (UN-1, UN-2, UN-3,

UN-4), & which aggregates to the broadest underutilisation measures (UU-1, UU-2, UU-

3, UU-4). Conceptually, the higher the number in the categorisation, the broader the

scope of measurement. Figures 1 and 2 explain the differences. Lastly, the new u-series

measures include headcount rates as well as volume (hours-based) rates.

Current underemployment closest to new UD-3 measure