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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2007	Dec 2007	Nov 07 to Dec 07		Dec 06 to Dec 07
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 570.4	10 588.5	18.2		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	480.9	483.1	2.2		-2.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.4	4.4	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.4	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 582.5	10 602.6	20.1		2.5	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	498.8	473.9	-24.9		-4.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.5	4.3	-0.2	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.2	-0.1	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,588,500
• UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 483,100
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained at 4.4%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained at 65.2%

• increased by 20,100 to 10,602,600. Full-time employment increased by 6,300 to 7,598,500 and part-time employment increased by 13,800 to 3,004,100.

• decreased by 24,900 to 473,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased by 5,500 to 325,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 19,400 to 148,900.

• decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3%. The male unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 4.4%.

• decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.2%.

In order to reduce the potential impact of the change in sample on labour force statistics, the new sample will be introduced progressively, taking advantage of the existing rotation scheme. Using this scheme, the private dwelling sample in larger urban centres and less remote areas, representing approximately four-fifths of the total sample, will be phased in over the period November 2007 to June 2008. Within these areas, one-eighth of the new sample will be introduced each month under existing sample rotation arrangements. The rest of the sample (in remote, less populated areas and for non-private dwellings) will be introduced in two stages, March and April 2008. Detailed information about the new sample is provided in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design (cat. no. 6269.0), which was released on 28 November 2007.

An analysis of the incoming and outgoing components of the sample indicates that the phasing in of the new sample has had minimal impact on the estimates.

SAMPLING ERRORS

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. 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 November and December 2007
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	20 100	-27 900	to	68 100
Total Unemployment	-24 900	-49 500	to	-300
Unemployment rate	-0.2 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.0 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pt	-0.3 pts	to	0.1 pt