MEDIA RELEASE
10 December 2015	Embargoed: 11:30 am (Canberra time)	143/2015

The ABS reported that strong growth in employment has continued: "The trend shows that around 293,000 more people were employed in November 2015 than in November 2014; an increase of 2.5 per cent," said Bruce Hockman, General Manager of ABS' Macroeconomic Statistics Division.

The increase in employment has contributed to the trend employment to population ratio rising over the year from 60.6 per cent to 61.3 per cent, while the unemployment rate has remained relatively stable over the year, decreasing from 6.2 per cent to 6.0 per cent.

Over the past month, trend employment increased by 25,300 persons to 11,855,800 persons, which translates into a monthly growth rate of 0.21 per cent. This growth rate was above the monthly average over the past 20 years (0.15 per cent), and continues the trend in relatively strong employment growth that has been seen since December 2014.

The trend series smooth the more volatile seasonally adjusted estimates and provide the best measure of the underlying behaviour of the labour market.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2015 was 5.8 per cent (down 0.1 percentage points) and the labour force participation rate was 65.3 per cent (up 0.3 percentage points).

The seasonally adjusted number of persons employed increased by 71,400 in November 2015, while the number of persons unemployed decreased by 2,800.

The ABS seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked in all jobs series decreased slightly in November 2015, down 12.7 million hours (0.8 per cent) to 1,645.9 million hours, the ABS reported.

More details are in the November 2015 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), as well as the upcoming November 2015 issues of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) due for release on December 17. These publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au

Media notes:

• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
• Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.
• The ABS produces trend estimates to provide a more reliable indicator of the underlying behaviour of the Labour Force series. Trend estimates were introduced into the Labour Force series in the mid 1980's and are available back to February 1978. Trend estimates are considered the best indicators of the underlying behaviour in the labour market. See paragraphs 28 to 37 of the Explanatory Notes in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).