6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Jan 2010 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 11/02/2010   
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JANUARY KEY FIGURES

Dec 2009
Jan 2010
Dec 09
to Jan 10
Jan 09
to Jan 10

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
10 909.4
10 936.2
26.7
1.3
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
635.4
627.4
-8.0
10.8
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.5
5.4
-0.1
pts
0.4
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.2
65.3
0.0
pts
-0.1
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
10 913.6
10 966.3
52.7
1.7
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
634.3
612.0
-22.3
8.9
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.5
5.3
-0.2
pts
0.3
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.3
65.3
0.0
pts
0.0
pts


Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment rate
Graph: Unemployment rate




JANUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased to 10,936,200
  • Unemployment decreased to 627,400
  • Unemployment rate decreased to 5.4%
  • Participation rate at 65.3%
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,529.0 million hours


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 52,700 (0.5%) to 10,966,300. Full-time employment increased 15,900 to 7,652,200 and part-time employment increased 36,900 to 3,314,200.
  • Unemployment decreased 22,300 (-3.5%) to 612,000. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 17,900 to 444,600 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 4,400 to 167,400.
  • Unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.3%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.3 pts to 5.2% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.3%.
  • Participation rate remained at 65.3%.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 14.8 million hours (-1.0%) to 1,518.1 million hours.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
February 2010 11 March 2010
March 2010 8 April 2010
April 2010 13 May 2010
May 2010 10 June 2010
June 2010 8 July 2010
July 2010 12 August 2010



FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AGGREGATE MONTHLY HOURS WORKED

From the February 2010 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) the ABS will introduce a new trend and seasonally adjusted measure of aggregate monthly hours worked by full time and part time employment, by sex; together with an increase in the historical series to include estimates from July 1978. Refer to articles in this issue titled Expansion of aggregate monthly hours worked and Aggregate monthly hours worked - January 2010.


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 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 35 and 36. 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 December 2009 and January 2010

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
52 700
-900
to
106 300
Total Unemployment
-22 300
-54 700
to
10 100
Unemployment rate
-0.2 pts
-0.4 pts
to
0.0 pts
Participation rate
0.0 pts
-0.4 pts
to
0.4 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 Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.