NOVEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Oct 2010	Nov 2010	Oct 10 to Nov 10		Nov 09 to Nov 10
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 360.1	11 390.1	30.0		3.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	628.3	632.7	4.4		-3.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.3	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.8	65.9	0.1	pts	0.6	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 362.3	11 416.9	54.6		3.7	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	647.3	627.8	-19.5		-4.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.2	-0.2	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.9	66.1	0.1	pts	0.7	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

NOVEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,390,100
• Unemployment increased to 632,700
• Unemployment rate increased to 5.3%
• Participation rate increased to 65.9%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,601.9 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 54,600 (0.5%) to 11,416,900. Full-time employment increased 55,100 to 8,033,300 and part-time employment decreased 400 to 3,383,600.
• Unemployment decreased 19,500 (-3.0%) to 627,800. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 15,100 to 441,500 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 4,400 to 186,300.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.2%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.3 pts to 4.9% and the female unemployment rate was steady at 5.6%.
• Participation rate increased 0.1 pt to a record high of 66.1%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 0.7 million hours (0.04%) to 1,603.1 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate remained steady at 12.4%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pt to 12.4%. The male labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pt to 10.5%. The female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 14.6%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
December 2010	13 January 2011
January 2011	10 February 2011
February 2011	10 March 2011
March 2011	7 April 2011
April 2011	12 May 2011
May 2011	9 June 2011

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AGGREGATE MONTHLY HOURS WORKED

From the January 2011 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) the ABS will introduce new measures of aggregate monthly hours worked by state and territory.

Refer to the article Aggregate monthly hours worked by state and territory in this issue (pages 3 to 7).


ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly change 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 October 2010 and November 2010
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	54 600	-	to	109 200
Total Unemployment	-19 500	-50 500	to	11 500
Unemployment rate	-0.2 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.0 pts
Participation rate	0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

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.