FEBRUARY KEY FIGURES

		Jan 2011	Feb 2011	Jan 11 to Feb 11		Feb 10 to Feb 11
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 424.6	11 433.7	9.1		2.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	607.9	604.1	-3.8		-3.8	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.1	5.0	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.8	65.8	0.0	pts	0.5	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 423.0	11 412.9	-10.1		2.7	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	605.3	604.8	-0.5		-3.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.0	5.0	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.8	65.7	-0.1	pts	0.4	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

FEBRUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,433,700
• Unemployment decreased to 604,100
• Unemployment rate at 5.0%
• Participation rate at 65.8%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased to 1,599.8 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 10,100 to 11,412,900. Full-time employment increased 47,600 to 8,068,500 and part-time employment decreased 57,700 to 3,344,400.
• Unemployment decreased 500 (0.1%) to 604,800. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 6,400 to 419,500 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 5,900 to 185,300.
• Unemployment rate at 5.0%. The male unemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 4.9% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.2%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 65.7%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 17.9 million hours to 1,602.0 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased to 12.1%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.4 pts to 11.9%. The male labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.5 pts to 10.0%. The female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 14.3%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
March 2011	7 April 2011
April 2011	12 May 2011
May 2011	9 June 2011
June 2011	7 July 2011
July 2011	11 August 2011
August 2011	8 September 2011

CHANGES THIS MONTH

As foreshadowed in the January 2011 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat no. 6202.0), labour force estimates for the period November 1984 to August 1997 have been revised to incorporate more accurate estimates from the source data and improve coherence with other labour force products. These revisions mainly impact on employment by industry, and duration of unemployment estimates. Revisions have also been made to employment by industry estimates for the month November 2010.


IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS

No significant operational difficulties were experienced in conducting the Labour Force Survey in February 2011. A small number of households from the sample were not able to be enumerated due to either flood or cyclone damage to the dwelling, or road closures preventing access to the dwelling. The small amount of sample loss has not had a statistically significant impact on the estimates and, unlike January, there was no need to apply corrections to any of the trend estimates this month. For further information on how the ABS responded to the Queensland floods refer to the article Impact of the Floods on the Labour Force Survey in the January 2011 issue of this publication.


SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Therefore, published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability, see pages 36 and 37. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. This represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between January 2011 and February 2011
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-10 100	-64 500	to	44 300
Total Unemployment	-500	-33 500	to	32 500
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2pts	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, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Labour Force on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.