DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2008	Dec 2008	Nov 08 to Dec 08		Dec 07 to Dec 08
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 747.4	10 749.4	2.0		1.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	493.0	498.1	5.1		7.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.4	4.4	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.0	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 743.5	10 742.3	-1.2		1.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	498.5	501.1	2.6		7.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.4	4.5	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.0	-0.1	pts	-0.2	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,749,400
• UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 498,100
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained steady at 4.4%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained steady at 65.0%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• decreased by 1,200 to 10,742,300. Full-time employment decreased by 43,900 to 7,640,200 and part-time employment increased by 42,800 to 3,102,200.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• increased by 2,600 to 501,100. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased by 2,600 to 349,400 and the number of persons looking for part-time work remained steady at 151,700.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• remained steady at 4.5%. The male unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.4%, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.5%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.0%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2009	12 February 2009
February 2009	12 March 2009
March 2009	9 April 2009
April 2009	7 May 2009
May 2009	11 June 2009
June 2009	9 July 2009

ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly change shown on the front cover have been calculated using unrounded estimates, and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded estimates. The graphs on the front cover also depict unrounded estimates.


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. The interval bounded by the two limits is the 95% confidence interval, which represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between November and December 2008
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-1 200	-62 000	to	59 600
Total Unemployment	2 600	-29 600	to	34 800
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 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 or Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.