MEDIA RELEASE
18 February 2016	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	14/2016

Trend employment has continued to show strong growth, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

"The trend shows that around 302,000 more people were employed in January 2016 than in January 2015 and full-time employment growth was a bit stronger than part-time growth over the year, increasing by 169,800 people," General Manager of ABS' Macroeconomic Statistics Division, Bruce Hockman said.

The increase in employment has contributed to the trend employment to population ratio rising over the year from 60.7 per cent to 61.4 per cent, while the unemployment rate decreased over the year from 6.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent.

Over the past month, trend employment increased by 19,800 persons to 11,909,900 persons, which equates to a monthly growth rate of 0.17 per cent. This growth rate was slightly above the monthly average over the past 20 years (0.15 per cent), and continues the recent trend in relatively strong employment growth.

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 number of persons employed decreased by 7,900 in January 2016, while the number of persons unemployed increased by 30,200.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2016 was 6.0 per cent (up 0.2 percentage points) and the seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate was unchanged at 65.2 per cent.

The ABS seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked in all jobs series increased by 10.9 million hours (0.7 per cent) to 1,656.0 million hours.

More details are in the January 2016 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), as well as the upcoming January 2016 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) due for release on February 25. These publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au

Media note:

• 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 (8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri).
• 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 1980s 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).