6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Apr 2014 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/05/2014   
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LABOUR FORCE COMMENTARY APRIL 2014


NATIONAL ESTIMATES

Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8% in April 2014 (seasonally adjusted), while in trend terms the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.9% in April 2014. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 400 to 713,400 in April 2014 (seasonally adjusted), while in trend terms the number of unemployed persons in April 2014 fell by 1,000 to 723,800.

April 2014 saw the seasonally adjusted participation rate decrease by less than 0.1 percentage points to 64.7%, following a revision to the March 2014 estimate. The trend participation rate increased by less than 0.1 percentage points to 64.8% in April 2014.

The seasonally adjusted number of employed persons increased by 14,200 in April 2014 to 11,572,900 persons. In trend terms, employment increased by 17,200 persons to 11,561,400 persons in April 2014. The employment to population ratio, which expresses the number of employed persons as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over, remained steady at 61.0% (seasonally adjusted). The trend employment to population ratio remained steady at 60.9%.

Employment to population ratio, Persons, November 2012 to April 2014
Graph: Employment to population ratio, Persons, November 2012 to April 2014


Seasonally adjusted full-time employment increased by 14,200 persons to 8,045,100 persons while part-time employment remained unchanged in April 2014 at 3,527,800 persons. The increase in total employment resulted from:
  • an increase in male full-time employment, up 20,100 persons
  • an increase in female part-time employment, up 13,000 persons
  • a decrease in female full-time employment, down 5,900 persons
  • a decrease in male part-time employment, down 13,000 persons.

Seasonally adjusted aggregate monthly hours worked decreased by 39.9 million hours (2.5%) in April 2014 to 1,572.6 million hours.


STATE ESTIMATE

The largest absolute increases in seasonally adjusted employment were in New South Wales (up 7,800 persons) and South Australia (up 6,600 persons). The largest absolute decreases in seasonally adjusted employment were in Victoria (down 5,100 persons) and Western Australia (down 1,800 persons). Seasonally adjusted estimates are not published for the territories.

Unemployment rate, State and Territories, March 2014 and April 2014

Trend
Seasonally Adjusted
March
April
March
April
%
%
%
%

New South Wales
5.5
5.4
5.2
5.4
Victoria
6.5
6.5
6.4
6.4
Queensland
6.2
6.3
6.1
6.3
South Australia
6.7
6.6
7.1
6.3
Western Australia
5.2
5.2
4.9
4.9
Tasmania
7.5
7.5
7.6
7.6
Northern Territory
3.8
3.8
np
np
Australian Capital Territory
3.5
3.6
np
np
Australia
5.9
5.9
5.8
5.8

np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated



AGGREGATE MONTHLY HOURS WORKED

In seasonally adjusted terms, the majority of the decrease in aggregate monthly hours worked in April 2014 was seen in full-time hours, which decreased 38.5 million hours, while part-time aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.3 million hours.

In absolute terms, the states with the largest movement in aggregate monthly hours worked included Victoria (down 14.2 million hours), Queensland (down 8.7 million hours), New South Wales (down 7.5 million hours) and Western Australia (down 7.3 million hours).

The trend estimates provide a better measure of the level and direction of the series, especially when there are significant irregular events such as the proximity of Easter and ANZAC Day.