DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2014	Dec 2014	Nov 14 to Dec 14		Dec 13 to Dec 14
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 632.4	11 646.8	14.4		1.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	770.2	770.9	0.7		7.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.2	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.7	0.0	pts	0.0	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 641.9	11 679.4	37.4		1.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	775.4	759.2	-16.2		5.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.1	-0.1	pts	0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.8	0.0	pts	0.2	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,646,800.
• Unemployment increased to 770,900 from a revised November 2014 estimate.
• Unemployment remained steady at 6.2% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.7% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.8 million hours to 1,602.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 37,400 to 11,679,400. Full-time employment increased 41,600 to 8,105,300 and part-time employment decreased 4,100 to 3,574,100.
• Unemployment decreased 16,200 to 759,200. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 6,000 to 551,500 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 22,300 to 207,700.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 6.1% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
• Participation rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 7.7 million hours (0.5%) to 1 ,597.8 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2015	12 February 2015
February 2015	12 March 2015
March 2015	9 April 2015
April 2015	7 May 2015
May 2015	11 June 2015
June 2015	9 July 2015

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

For information regarding a refinement to the aggregate monthly hours worked series, refer to 'What's new in the Labour Force' on pages 5-6.

The information paper Questionnaires used in the Labour Force Survey, July 2014 (cat. no. 6232.0) was released on 19 December 2014 and is available from the ABS website. The paper describes changes implemented in the questionnaire in July 2014 and a copy of the standard Labour Force questionnaire.


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 NOVEMBER 2014 AND DECEMBER 2014
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	37 400	-20 600	to	95 400
Total Unemployment	-16 200	-53 800	to	21 400
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts

INQUIRIES

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