MAY KEY FIGURES

		Apr 2016	May 2016	Apr 16 to May 16		May 15 to May 16
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 915.7	11 919.4	3.7		1.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	726.5	724.3	-2.2		-5.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.7	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.9	64.8	-0.1	pts	0.0	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 912.9	11 930.7	17.9		1.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	724.8	726.4	1.6		-1.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.7	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.8	0.0	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

MAY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 3,700 to 11,919,400.
• Unemployment decreased 2,200 to 724,300.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7%.
• Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 2.3 million hours to 1,632.1 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 17,900 to 11,930,700. Full-time employment remained steady at 8,156,500 and part-time employment increased 17,900 to 3,774,200.
• Unemployment increased 1,600 to 726,400. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 6,200 to 509,200 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 7,800 to 217,200.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.8%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 27.7 million hours to 1,643.1 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased by less than 0.1 pts, remaining steady at 14.2%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 14.2%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
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
November 2016	15 December 2016

REVISED POPULATION BENCHMARKS

The latest available Estimated Resident Population data has been incorporated into revised population benchmarks which underpin the compilation of the Labour Force series. Labour Force series from July 2014 to April 2016 have been revised in original terms, with related revisions to seasonally adjusted and trend data. Revised series (including data up to the April 2016 reference month but prior to the inclusion of the May 2016 data), were released on 9 June 2016 in the April 2016 issue of Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003). The inclusion of the May 2016 data in this issue will result in further revisions to the seasonally adjusted and trend data as a result of the usual concurrent seasonal adjustment process.


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 APRIL 2016 AND MAY 2016
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	17 900	-40 700	to	76 500
Total Unemployment	1 600	-35 600	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.