Unemployment rate
/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/demographics/unemployment10¢ per callLabour-force-weighted unemployment rate for the suburb against the pinned national median, plus the per-microburb shares behind it.
Exact suburb identifier required. Exact ABS Suburb and Locality (SAL) name, e.g. Burwood (NSW) — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>, then use the exact data[].area_name it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.
Price: 10¢ per call.
Authorization
Request
The only values you send. Fields under Responses below are what comes back — you never pass those.
Path parameters
suburb_namestringrequiredExact ABS Suburb and Locality (SAL) name, e.g. `Burwood (NSW)` — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call `GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>`, then use the exact `data[].area_name` it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.
Query parameters
Responses
Successful Response
suburbstringalways returnedCanonical SAL name.
unemployment_pctnumberalways returnedSuburb unemployment rate as a percentage.
basisstringalways returnedDenominator behind unemployment_pct — 'labour_force' (unemployed / labour force, the reported figure) or 'population_share' (suburb census fallback when the mesh-block downscale has no coverage).
national_median_pctnumberalways returnedThe Australia-wide unemployment rate to compare `unemployment_pct` against, as a percentage — a fixed 2021 Census benchmark, so it is the same constant in every response and does not move between suburbs or over time. Despite 'median' in the name it is a national aggregate rate, not the median of suburb rates.
vs_nationalstringalways returnedWhether this suburb's unemployment sits 'below' or 'above' the national benchmark — the shorthand answer to 'is this good or bad'. Below is the favourable direction here. A suburb exactly equal to the benchmark is reported as 'above'.
growth_impactobjectalways returnedWhat a suburb's score on this indicator has historically gone together with, in capital-growth terms. ⚠️ **This is an association, not a prediction, and not a calculation from this suburb's own numbers.** The suburb is sorted into one of a few bands, and each band carries a fixed figure drawn from Microburbs' research across many suburbs. Two suburbs in the same band always return exactly the same `pct_per_year`. Do not add these up across indicators to build a growth forecast, and do not present the figure as something this suburb will do.
n_microburbsintegeralways returnedMesh blocks in the microburbs list.
microburbsarray of UnemploymentMicroburbalways returnedPer-mesh-block unemployment shares (sparse cells dropped).
/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/demographics/unemploymentcurl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Belmont%20North/demographics/unemployment' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer test'{
"data": {
"basis": "labour_force",
"growth_impact": {
"band": "Mid unemployment",
"pct_per_year": 0
},
"microburbs": [
{
"mb": "10664530000",
"street": "Marquis St",
"unemployment_pct": 3.1
}
],
"n_microburbs": 71,
"national_median_pct": 5.2,
"suburb": "Belmont North",
"unemployment_pct": 4.2,
"vs_national": "below"
}
}