MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2013	Mar 2013	Feb 13 to Mar 13		Mar 12 to Mar 13
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 587.3	11 599.9	12.6		1.1	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	668.7	672.0	3.3		8.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.5	5.5	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.1	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 628.9	11 592.7	-36.1		0.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	661.0	686.9	25.9		9.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.6	0.2	pts	0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.1	-0.2	pts	-0.2	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

MARCH KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,599,900.
• Unemployment increased to 672,000.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5% from a revised February 2013 estimate.
• Participation rate steady at 65.1%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,628.1 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 36,100 (0.3%) to 11,592,700. Full-time employment decreased 7,400 to 8,111,300 and part-time employment decreased 28,700 to 3,481,500.
• Unemployment increased 25,900 (3.9%) to 686,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 30,900 to 501,900 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 5,000 to 185,000.
• The unemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 5.6%.
• The participation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 65.1%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 5.0 million hours to 1,627.3 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2013	9 May 2013
May 2013	13 June 2013
June 2013	11 July 2013
July 2013	8 August 2013
August 2013	12 September 2013
September 2013	10 October 2013

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - FEATURE ARTICLE ON JOBS

A feature article estimating the number of jobs in the economy and comparing it with the number of people employed was published on Thursday 21 March attached to Labour Force, Australia, February 2013 (cat. no. 6202.0).


REBENCHMARKING OF LABOUR FORCE SERIES

Labour Force estimates from January 2011 to March 2013 will be revised in the April 2013 issue to align the Labour Force population benchmarks with the latest available information on population growth. As previously advised, these estimates will use the 2006 census base for the population benchmarks until the 2011 census base is introduced in the January 2014 issue.


ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly changes shown on the front cover 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 pages 32 and 33). 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 FEBRUARY 2013 AND MARCH 2013
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-36 100	-91 100	to	18 900
Total Unemployment	25 900	-8 700	to	60 500
Unemployment rate	0.2 pts	0.0 pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	-0.2 pts	-0.6 pts	to	0.2 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Labour Force on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au\>.