MARCH KEY FIGURES

		Feb 2015	Mar 2015	Feb 15 to Mar 15		Mar 14 to Mar 15
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 679.9	11 700.6	20.7		1.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	769.6	768.6	-0.9		6.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.2	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.8	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 682.6	11 720.3	37.7		1.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	766.0	764.5	-1.5		5.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.2	6.1	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.8	0.1	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

MARCH KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,700,600.
• Unemployment decreased to 768,600.
• Unemployment rate remained at 6.2% from a revised February 2015 estimate.
• Participation rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 4.8 million hours to 1,628.7 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 37,700 to 11,720,300. Full-time employment increased 31,500 to 8,131,400 and part-time employment increased 6,100 to 3,588,900.
• Unemployment decreased 1,500 to 764,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 700 to 546,800 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 2,200 to 217,700.
• Unemployment rate decreased less than 0.1 pts to 6.1% from a revised February 2015 estimate of 6.2%.
• Participation rate increased 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 4.8 million hours (0.3%) to 1,630.4 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
April 2015	7 May 2015
May 2015	11 June 2015
June 2015	9 July 2015
July 2015	6 August 2015
August 2015	10 September 2015
September 2015	8 October 2015

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

For details regarding new Labour Force outputs, refer to What's new in the Labour Force on page 6. This issue also provides an update on recommendations from the independent technical review into the Labour Force Survey. For details, refer to page 10.


REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

Seasonally adjusted and trend series in this issue have been revised back to 1978 as a result of the annual seasonal reanalysis (see page 7 for details) and the incorporation of an additional month's original data. This resulted in the seasonally adjusted February 2015 unemployment rate being revised from 6.3% to 6.2%, and employment growth being revised from 15,600 to 42,000 persons. The February 2015 seasonally adjusted estimates include an adjustment for changes to the timing and content of the supplementary survey program; this adjustment has been revised following the availability of March 2015 data. The independent technical review of the Labour Force Survey noted that there was the possibility of instability in seasonally adjusted estimates in months with changes to the supplementary survey program, such as February.


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 FEBRUARY 2015 AND MARCH 2015
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	37 700	-20 300	to	95 700
Total Unemployment	-1 500	-41 900	to	38 900
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts

INQUIRIES

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