AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2017	Aug 2017	Jul 17 to Aug 17		Aug 16 to Aug 17
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12 222.4	12 249.5	27.1		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	725.3	723.2	-2.2		0.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.6	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.2	0.1	pts	0.5	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12 214.7	12 269.0	54.2		2.7	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	728.5	727.5	-1.1		1.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.6	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.3	0.2	pts	0.6	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 27,100 to 12,249,500.
• Unemployment decreased 2,200 to 723,200.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.6%.
• Participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 65.2%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.9 million hours (0.2%) to 1,708.6 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 54,200 to 12,269,000. Full-time employment increased 40,100 to 8,392,300 and part-time employment increased 14,100 to 3,876,700.
• Unemployment decreased 1,100 to 727,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 6,400 to 501,600 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 7,500 to 225,900.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.6%
• Participation rate increased by 0.2 pts to 65.3%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 6.1 million hours (0.4%) to 1,705.4 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: the labour force underemployment rate remained steady at 8.7%. The underutilisation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 14.2%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: the labour force underemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 8.6%. The underutilisation rate decreased by 0.2 pts to 14.1%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2017	19 October 2017
October 2017	16 November 2017
November 2017	14 December 2017
December 2017	18 January 2018
January 2018	15 February 2018
February 2018	22 March 2018

ANNUAL BENCHMARKING OF MONTHLY HOURS WORKED

Each year the monthly hours worked in all jobs series is benchmarked to a new annual hours worked estimate. This year the annual benchmarking also incorporated some minor process improvements in the calculation of annual benchmarks across the entire time series, which have resulted in some minor revisions throughout the series.

No changes have been made to the methodology used to produce these estimates. For more details on the methodology, refer to the Information Paper: Expansion of Hours Worked Estimates from the Labour Force Survey, 2009 (cat. no. 6290.0.55.001).


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 2017 AND AUGUST 2017
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	54 200	-5 000	to	113 400
Total Unemployment	-1 100	-38 100	to	35 900
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	0.2 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.6 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email <client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.