APRIL KEY FIGURES

		Mar 2010	Apr 2010	Mar 10 to Apr 10		Apr 09 to Apr 10
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 998.2	11 016.5	18.3		2.2	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	617.4	615.9	-1.5		-4.0	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.3	5.3	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 991.8	11 025.5	33.7		2.2	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	621.6	628.1	6.5		1.0	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.4	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.1	pts	-0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

APRIL KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,016,500
• Unemployment decreased to 615,900
• Unemployment rate at 5.3%
• Participation rate remained at 65.2%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,537.7 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 33,700 (0.3%) to 11,025,500. Full-time employment increased 37,500 to 7,735,500 and part-time employment decreased 3,900 to 3,290,000.
• Unemployment increased 6,500 (1.0%) to 628,100. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 7,700 to 451,000 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 1,300 to 177,000.
• Unemployment rate remained at 5.4%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.3% and the female unemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 5.5%.
• Participation rate at 65.2%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 8.3 million hours (0.5%) to 1,531.4 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2010	10 June 2010
June 2010	8 July 2010
July 2010	12 August 2010
August 2010	9 September 2010
September 2010	7 October 2010
October 2010	11 November 2010

ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly change shown on the front cover have been calculated using unrounded estimates, and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded estimates. The graphs on the front cover also depict unrounded estimates.


SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Therefore, published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability, see pages 33 and 34. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. This represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between March 2010 and April 2010
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	33 700	-19 700	to	87 100
Total Unemployment	6 500	-26 100	to	39 100
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.1 pt	-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.