MAY KEY FIGURES

		Apr 2018	May 2018	Apr 18 to May 18		May 17 to May 18
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12 506.4	12 522.3	15.9		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	725.1	723.7	-1.5		-1.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.5	5.5	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.5	0.0	pts	0.5	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12 506.3	12 518.3	12.0		2.5	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	741.5	714.6	-26.8		-0.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.4	-0.2	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.5	-0.2	pts	0.5	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

MAY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 15,900 to 12,522,300.
• Unemployment decreased 1,500 to 723,700.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5%.
• Participation rate decreased by less than 0.1 pts to 65.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 2.8 million hours (0.2%) to 1,747.1 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 12,000 to 12,518,300. Full-time employment decreased 20,600 to 8,521,400 and part-time employment increased 32,600 to 3,996,900.
• Unemployment decreased 26,800 to 714,600. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 11,200 to 494,300 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 15,600 to 220,300.
• Unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 pts to 5.4%.
• Participation rate decreased by 0.2 pts to 65.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 24.2 million hours (1.4%) to 1,738.8 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: the labour force underemployment rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 8.5%. The underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.9%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: the labour force underemployment rate increased by 0.1 pts to 8.5%. The underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.9%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2018	19 July 2018
July 2018	16 August 2018
August 2018	13 September 2018
September 2018	18 October 2018
October 2018	15 November 2018
November 2018	20 December 2018

UPDATE ON MONTHLY UNDEREMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES

As previously advised, the ABS intends to release monthly trend and seasonally adjusted underemployment and underutilisation measures in the September issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) on 18 October 2018. Further information on the new monthly series, including changes that will be made to the suite of time series spreadsheets, will be included ahead of the release of the new series.


ROUNDING

Estimates of 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, movement 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 movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. 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 APRIL 2018 AND MAY 2018
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	12 000	-48 200	to	72 200
Total Unemployment	-26 800	-64 600	to	11 000
Unemployment rate	-0.2 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.0 pts
Participation rate	-0.2 pts	-0.6 pts	to	0.2 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email <client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.