AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2007	Aug 2007	Jul 07 to Aug 07		Aug 06 to Aug 07
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 485.3	10 502.1	16.9		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	468.6	467.1	-1.5		-7.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.3	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.0	65.0	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 481.4	10 513.3	31.9		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	468.4	472.0	3.6		-6.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.3	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.0	65.1	0.1	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,502,100
• UNEMPLOYMENT decreased to 467,100
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained at 4.3%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained at 65.0%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• increased by 31,900 to 10,513,300. Full-time employment increased by 29,100 to 7,541,900 and part-time employment increased by 2,700 to 2,971,400.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• increased by 3,600 to 472,000. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased by 6,900 to 317,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased by 10,600 to 155,000.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• remained at 4.3%. The male unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point but the rounded estimate remained at 3.9%, and the female unemployment rate decreased marginally to 4.7%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• increased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.1%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2007	11 October 2007
October 2007	8 November 2007
November 2007	13 December 2007
December 2007	17 January 2008
January 2008	14 February 2008
February 2008	13 March 2008

REFORMS TO INCOME SUPPORT

In the 2005-06 Budget the Commonwealth Government announced reforms to income support eligibility and activity requirements. Changes in these programs are being implemented progressively, but many of the initiatives took effect from July 2007. While the reforms may change a person's eligibility or activity requirements for income support, the reforms have not changed the way the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the Labour Force Survey (LFS) or the definitions used in the survey. The LFS does not ask any questions directly related to participation in labour market or income support programs. Such information is neither necessary nor sufficient to determine labour force status. Individual participants are counted as employed, unemployed or not in the labour force according to economic (work-related) activity undertaken in the survey reference period. The measurement of labour force aggregates, based on economic activity tests, is thus consistent over time and independent of changes to labour market or income support programs. The extent to which the changes to income support programs affect people's behaviours in the labour market will be reflected in labour force statistics, however the ABS is unable to estimate the impact attributable to such changes.



SAMPLING ERRORS

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Because the entire population is not enumerated, the published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability and appear on pages 28 and 29.

The 95% confidence intervals below provide another way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates from sample surveys.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between July and August 2007
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	31 900	-14 900	to	78 700
Total Unemployment	3 600	-20 200	to	27 400
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.1 pts	-0.1 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 or Bjorn Jarvis on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.