The percentage of long-term unemployed (people unemployed for one year or more) was 19% in July 2011 compared to 18% in July 2010 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Of these, around 83,000 (or three quarters of long-term unemployed people) were looking for full-time work in July 2011.

For long-term unemployed people the most common difficulties in finding a job were 'own health or disability' (17%), 'lacked necessary skills or education' (13%), followed by 'too many applicants for available jobs' (11%).

The majority of unemployed people, (81%) were unemployed for less than one year (short-term unemployed), with over a quarter of these (26%) having been unemployed for less than four weeks.

Of the short-term unemployed people, 13% reported that they had no difficulties in finding another job.

For unemployed people aged 15 to 24 years, the main difficulty in finding work was 'insufficient work experience' (17%), while for those aged 45 years and over it was 'considered too old by employers' (18%).

Of all unemployed people, 20% had never worked before and 21% had worked previously, but not in the last two years. Four out of five unemployed people (80%) had not received any offers of employment in the current period of unemployment.