OCTOBER KEY FIGURES

		Sep 2011	Oct 2011	Sep 11 to Oct 11		Oct 10 to Oct 11
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 447.5	11 453.3	5.8		0.8	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	633.3	639.5	6.2		3.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.3	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.6	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 452.2	11 462.3	10.1		0.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	636.5	630.8	-5.7		-1.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.3	5.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.6	-0.1	pts	-0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

OCTOBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,453,300.
• Unemployment increased to 639,500.
• Unemployment rate increased to 5.3%.
• Participation rate steady at 65.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,624.8 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 10,100 (0.1%) to 11,462,300. Full-time employment increased 20,000 persons to 8,067,500 and part-time employment decreased 9,900 persons to 3,394,800.
• Unemployment decreased 5,700 (0.9%) to 630,800. The number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 15,400 to 165,800 and the number of persons looking for full-time work increased 9,800 to 465,000.
• The unemployment rate at 5.2%. The male unemployment rate increased 0.1 pts to 5.3% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.2%.
• The participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 65.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 10.4 million hours to 1,626.0 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
November 2011	8 December 2011
December 2011	19 January 2012
January 2012	16 February 2012
February 2012	8 March 2012
March 2012	12 April 2012
April 2012	10 May 2012

50 YEARS OF LABOUR FORCE STATISTICS

In celebrating 50 years of Labour Force Statistics, the ABS published an article in the October 2011 Australian Labour Market Statistics (cat. no. 6105.0), showing trends in the labour force over the last 50 years. Another article, Understanding Labour Force, was also published this month on the ABS website (cat. no. 6202.0), which addresses some of the misconceptions that occasionally surround the figures.


QUEENSLAND THIS MONTH

This month, the seasonally adjusted estimate of Queensland employment increased by 17,900. While this movement is high, it is not unprecedented, with similar movements in September 2010 and April 2011. Last month's seasonally adjusted estimate was lower than the trend, with a shortfall of around 2,700 employed people, and this month was higher, with an excess of 12,100 employed people. This variability is inherent in any sample survey and the errors associated with sampling are usually more pronounced in state estimates. The volatility in the movement for this month may also be attributable to a lower-than-usual response rate for Queensland in September, associated with the conduct of the Census Post Enumeration Survey in that month. As always, the ABS recommends that the trend estimates be regarded as the best representation of employment over time. This month, the trend for Queensland shows an increase of 3,200 employed and a stable employment-to-population ratio of 64%.


SAMPLING ERROR

Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability (see pages 34 and 35). 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 SEPTEMBER 2011 AND OCTOBER 2011
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	10 100	-44 700	to	64 900
Total Unemployment	-5 700	-37 500	to	26 100
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	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.