6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, May 2013 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/06/2013   
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MAY KEY FIGURES

Apr 2013
May 2013
Apr 13 to May 13
May 12 to May 13

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
11 654.7
11 664.6
9.9
1.3
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
683.0
687.7
4.7
10.1
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.5
5.6
0.0
pts
0.4
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.3
65.3
0.0
pts
0.0
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
11 662.2
11 663.3
1.1
1.1
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
686.5
682.9
-3.6
8.7
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.6
5.5
0.0
pts
0.4
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.3
65.2
-0.1
pts
-0.2
pts


Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate
Graph: Unemployment Rate




MAY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased to 11,664,600.
  • Unemployment increased to 687,700.
  • Unemployment rate at 5.6%.
  • Participation rate remained steady at 65.3%.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,634.0 million hours.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 1,100 to 11,663,300. Full-time employment decreased 5,300 to 8,153,600 and part-time employment increased 6,400 to 3,509,600.
  • Unemployment decreased 3,600 (0.5%) to 682,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 2,700 to 506,300 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 6,300 to 176,600.
  • The unemployment rate at 5.5%.
  • The participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 65.2%.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 11.5 million hours to 1,628.5 million hours.


LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)
  • Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased to 12.8% from 12.6%.
  • Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased 0.4 pts to 12.9%. The male labour force underutilisation rate increased 0.4 pts to 11.2%. The female labour force underutilisation rate increased 0.3 pts to 15.0%.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
June 2013 11 July 2013
July 2013 8 August 2013
August 2013 12 September 2013
September 2013 10 October 2013
October 2013 7 November 2013
November 2013 12 December 2013



NOTES RELATING TO MAY ISSUE

See page 5 for details on the following:
  • Rebenchmarking of Labour Force estimates
  • Online collection in the Labour Force Survey
  • New Labour market microdata available.


ANNUAL SEASONAL REANALYSIS

The annual seasonal reanalysis was conducted on April 2013 estimates. See the article on page 7 of this issue for more information.


NEW LABOUR FORCE SAMPLE DESIGN

The new labour force sample is being phased-in over four month from May to August 2013. See the article on page 10 of this issue for more information.


ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly and quarterly 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, 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 40 and 41). 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 2013 AND MAY 2013

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
1 100
-58 700
to
60 900
Total Unemployment
-3 600
-39 000
to
31 800
Unemployment rate
0.0 pts
-0.2 pts
to
0.2 pts
Participation rate
-0.1 pts
-0.5 pts
to
0.3 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\>.