DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2013	Dec 2013	Nov 13 to Dec 13		Dec 12 to Dec 13
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 637.2	11 636.6	-0.6		0.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	714.5	716.0	1.5		8.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.8	0.0	pts	0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.7	-0.1	pts	-0.6	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 652.1	11 629.5	-22.6		0.5	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	714.0	722.0	8.0		9.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.8	0.1	pts	0.5	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.6	-0.2	pts	-0.6	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased to 11,636,600.
• Unemployment increased to 716,000.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%.
• Participation decreased 0.1 pts to 64.7%, based on unrounded estimates.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased to 1,636.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 22,600 to 11,629,500. Full-time employment decreased 31,600 to 8,067,700 and part-time employment increased 9,000 to 3,561,800.
• Unemployment increased 8,000 (1.1%) to 722,000. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 13,300 to 532,400 and the number of unemployed persons looking for part-time work decreased 5,300 to 189,600.
• The unemployment rate increased 0.1 pts to 5.8%, based on unrounded estimates.
• The participation rate decreased 0.2 pts to at 64.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 0.6 million hours to 1,634.0 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2014	13 February 2014
February 2014	13 March 2014
March 2014	10 April 2014
April 2014	8 May 2014
May 2014	12 June 2014
June 2014	10 July 2014

ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly and quarterly 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, movements 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 the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability (see Standard Errors section). 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 NOVEMBER 2013 AND DECEMBER 2013
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-22 600	-79 800	to	34 600
Total Unemployment	8 000	-28 400	to	44 400
Unemployment rate	0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts
Participation rate	-0.2 pts	-0.6 pts	to	0.2 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\>.