MAY KEY FIGURES

		Apr 2015	May 2015	Apr 15 to May 15		May 14 to May 15
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 731.5	11 747.2	15.7		1.8	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	759.7	756.3	-3.4		3.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.1	6.0	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.8	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 717.5	11 759.6	42.0		2.0	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	767.2	745.2	-22.0		2.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.1	6.0	-0.2	pts	0.0	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.7	0.0	pts	0.2	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

MAY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,747,200.
• Unemployment decreased to 756,300.
• Unemployment rate decreased less than 0.1 pts to 6.0%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.8%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 2.5 million hours to 1,634.1 million hours from a revised April 2015 estimate.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 42,000 to 11,759,600. Full-time employment increased 14,700 to 8,128,600 and part-time employment increased 27,300 to 3,630,900.
• Unemployment decreased 22,000 to 745,200. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 23,500 to 514,500 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 1,500 to 230,800.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 6.0%, based on unrounded estimates.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.7% from a revised April 2015 estimate.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 2.2 million hours (0.1%) to 1,631.8 million hours from a revised April 2015 estimate.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 14.7%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.4 pts to 14.5%. The male labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.4 pts to 12.5%. The female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.4 pts to 16.7%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2015	9 July 2015
July 2015	6 August 2015
August 2015	10 September 2015
September 2015	8 October 2015
October 2015	12 November 2015
November 2015	10 December 2015

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

The introduction of new format tables, spreadsheets and data cubes in this and the related issues has been delayed as testing identified a small number of discrepancies that are being resolved. The new outputs are now scheduled to be introduced with the June 2015 issues. Any change to this plan will be announced on Monday 6 July at the latest. Details of this new format are on page 6.

As advised in the April issue, the quarterly rebenchmarking scheduled for the May 2015 issues was not undertaken. This is to minimise data changes ahead of the new format outputs being introduced. Quarterly rebenchmarking will recommence with the August issues.

An update on recommendation 7 from the independent technical review into the Labour Force Survey is available on page 7.


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 Standard Errors section). 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 2015 AND MAY 2015
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	42 000	-16 200	to	100 200
Total Unemployment	-22 000	-60 600	to	16 600
Unemployment rate	-0.2 pts	-0.6 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts

INQUIRIES

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