APRIL KEY FIGURES

		Mar 2015	Apr 2015	Mar 15 to Apr 15		Apr 14 to Apr 15
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 705.9	11 725.0	19.1		1.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	768.0	767.5	-0.6		5.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.1	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.8	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 727.5	11 724.6	-2.9		1.5	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	762.5	769.5	7.0		7.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.1	6.2	0.1	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.8	-0.1	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

APRIL KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,725,000.
• Unemployment decreased to 767,500.
• Unemployment rate decreased less than 0.1 pts to 6.1%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.8%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 6.9 million hours to 1,643.7 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 2,900 to 11,724,600. Full-time employment decreased 21,900 to 8,115,900 and part-time employment increased 19,000 to 3,608,600.
• Unemployment increased 7,000 to 769,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 2,700 to 541,500 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 9,800 to 228,000.
• Unemployment rate increased 0.1 pts to 6.2%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts but remained at 64.8%, based on unrounded estimates.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 17.8 million hours (1.1%) to 1,651.9 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2015	11 June 2015
June 2015	9 July 2015
July 2015	6 August 2015
August 2015	10 September 2015
September 2015	8 October 2015
October 2015	12 November 2015

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

What's new in the Labour Force on page 6 includes important information about new Labour Force outputs to be introduced with the next issue of this publication.

The quarterly rebenchmarking scheduled for the May 2015 issues will not be undertaken to minimise data changes as the new format outputs are introduced. Quarterly rebenchmarking will recommence with the August issues.

An update on one recommendation from the independent technical review into the Labour Force Survey will be provided with the April 2015 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) to be released on Thursday May 14.


ROUNDING

Estimates of change shown on the front cover and used in the commentary 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. Published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability (see Standard Errors section). The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. There is a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

MOVEMENTS IN SEASONALLY ADJUSTED SERIES BETWEEN MARCH 2015 AND APRIL 2015
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-2 900	-60 900	to	55 100
Total Unemployment	7 000	-32 600	to	46 600
Unemployment rate	0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts

INQUIRIES

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