AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2015	Aug 2015	Jul 15 to Aug 15	Aug 14 to Aug 15
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 750.1	11 765.4	15.3	2.0 %
	Unemployed persons ('000)	771.9	778.4	6.5	2.5 %
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.2	0.0 pts	0.0 pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.9	65.0	0.1 pts	0.4 pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 758.3	11 775.8	17.4	2.0 %
	Unemployed persons ('000)	795.5	781.1	-14.4	4.0 %
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.3	6.2	-0.1 pts	0.1 pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.0	-0.1 pts	0.4 pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,765,400.
• Unemployment increased to 778,400.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 6.2% from a revised July 2015 estimate.
• Participation rate increased 0.1 pts to 65.0%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 0.7 million hours to 1,625.6 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 17,400 to 11,775,800. Full-time employment increased 11,500 to 8,141,000 and part-time employment increased 5,900 to 3,634,800.
• Unemployment decreased 14,400 to 781,100. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 3,500 to 561,400 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 11,000 to 219,700.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 6.2%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 65.0%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 0.6 million hours to 1,623.8 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates : The labour force underutilisation rate decreased to 14.3%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate remained steady at 14.3%. The male labour force underutilisation rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 12.4%. The female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 16.6%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2015	15 October 2015
October 2015	12 November 2015
November 2015	10 December 2015
December 2015	14 January 2016
January 2016	11 February 2016
February 2016	10 March 2016

REBENCHMARKING OF LABOUR FORCE SERIES

Commencing with this issue, rebenchmarking will be undertaken quarterly in the February, May, August and November issues. (see Population Benchmarks in the Explanatory Notes). Rebenchmarked data comparable with the July 2015 issue of this publication are available in the Information Paper: Rebenchmarked Labour Force Estimates (cat.no.6202.0.55.002).


ROUNDING

Estimates of 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, movement 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 movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. 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 JULY 2015 AND AUGUST 2015
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	17 400	-40 600	to	75 400
Total Unemployment	-14 400	-53 000	to	24 200
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 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\>.