APRIL KEY FIGURES

		Mar 2016	Apr 2016	Mar 16 to Apr 16		Apr 15 to Apr 16
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 906.7	11 910.8	4.1		2.0	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	728.5	726.6	-1.9		-4.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.7	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.9	64.9	-0.1	pts	0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 906.4	11 917.2	10.8		2.1	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	722.9	723.3	0.4		-6.0	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.7	0.0	pts	-0.5	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.9	64.8	0.0	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

APRIL KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 4,100 to 11,910,800.
• Unemployment decreased 1,900 to 726,600.
• Unemployment rate decreased by less than 0.1 pts to 5.7%.
• Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 64.9%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 5.6 million hours to 1,628.9 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 10,800 to 11,917,200. Full-time employment decreased 9,300 to 8,165,600 and part-time employment increased 20,200 to 3,751,600.
• Unemployment increased 400 to 723,300. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work remained steady at 515,000 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 400 to 208,200.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7%.
• Participation rate decreased by less than 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 17.9 million hours to 1,613.8 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2016	16 June 2016
June 2016	14 July 2016
July 2016	18 August 2016
August 2016	15 September 2016
September 2016	20 October 2016
October 2016	17 November 2016

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

From the August 2015 issue the ABS commenced quarterly updating (rebenchmarking) Labour Force population benchmarks with the latest available Estimated Resident Population series. To enable users to assess the impact of the rebenchmarking, the ABS publishes rebenchmarked Labour Force estimates one week prior to each quarterly release of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), within Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003). This additional quarterly release includes all spreadsheets and one data cube that are released as part of Labour Force, Australia. The May 2016 issue of the rebenchmarked estimates will be released on 9 June 2016.


ROUNDING

Estimates of changes 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, movement 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 movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. 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 2016 AND APRIL 2016
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	10 800	-47 600	to	69 200
Total Unemployment	400	-38 000	to	38 800
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.