SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2017	Sep 2017	Aug 17 to Sep 17		Sep 16 to Sep 17
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12 257.5	12 281.2	23.8		2.8	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	718.8	716.6	-2.2		-0.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.5	5.5	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.1	pts	0.6	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12 270.4	12 290.2	19.8		3.1	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	723.3	711.5	-11.8		-0.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.5	-0.1	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.8	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 23,800 to 12,281,200.
• Unemployment decreased 2,200 to 716,600.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5%, following a revised August 2017 estimate.
• Participation rate increased by less than 0.1 pts, but remained at 65.2% in rounded terms.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.1 million hours (0.2%) to 1,714.5 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 19,800 to 12,290,200. Full-time employment increased 6,100 to 8,398,200 and part-time employment increased 13,700 to 3,892,000.
• Unemployment decreased 11,800 to 711,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 10,600 to 487,100 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 1,200 to 224,400.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 5.5%.
• Participation remained steady at 65.2%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 11.2 million hours (0.7%) to 1,718.2 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2017	16 November 2017
November 2017	14 December 2017
December 2017	18 January 2018
January 2018	15 February 2018
February 2018	22 March 2018
March 2018	19 April 2018

UPDATE ON TIMING OF MAJOR REBENCHMARKING

For an update on the revised timing of the major rebenchmarking please refer to "What's new in the Labour Force".


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 AUGUST 2017 AND SEPTEMBER 2017
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	19 800	-39 600	to	79 200
Total Unemployment	-11 800	-48 800	to	25 200
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.1 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.