OCTOBER KEY FIGURES

		Sep 2016	Oct 2016	Sep 16 to Oct 16		Oct 15 to Oct 16
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 947.6	11 946.6	-1.0		0.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	712.7	708.6	-4.1		-6.0	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.6	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.6	64.5	-0.1	pts	-0.6	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 929.1	11 938.9	9.8		0.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	707.1	705.1	-2.0		-5.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.6	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.4	64.4	0.0	pts	-0.6	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

OCTOBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 1,000 to 11,946,600.
• Unemployment decreased 4,100 to 708,600.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.6%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 64.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.2 million hours to 1668.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 9,800 to 11,938,900. Full-time employment increased 41,500 to 8,126,900 and part-time employment decreased 31,700 to 3,812,000.
• Unemployment decreased 2,000 to 705,100. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 700 to 494,300 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 2,700 to 210,800.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.6%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.4%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 14.3 million hours to 1674.8 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
November 2016	15 December 2016
December 2016	19 January 2017
January 2017	16 February 2017
February 2017	16 March 2017
March 2017	13 April 2017
April 2017	18 May 2017

REVIEW OF INCOMING ROTATION GROUPS

Last month the ABS observed that the incoming rotation group was considerably different to the rest of the Queensland sample and its influence was reduced as part of the estimation process.

The ABS has further reviewed the treatment of September's incoming rotation group in Queensland and confirmed that the characteristics observed in September are relatively consistent with those observed in October, suggesting that last month's data were representative of the new group. Its influence has therefore been restored, resulting in revisions to September estimates for Queensland and (to a lesser extent) Australia.


QUARTERLY REBENCHMARKING

Every quarter, Labour Force population benchmarks are updated to align with the latest available Estimated Resident Population series. To enable users to assess the impact of the rebenchmarking, the ABS publishes rebenchmarked Labour Force estimates one week prior to Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), within Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003), the next issue of which will be released on 8 December 2016. These rebenchmarked estimates are produced for information only, and should not be considered a replacement for the estimates in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).


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 SEPTEMBER 2016 AND OCTOBER 2016
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	9 800	-48 600	to	68 200
Total Unemployment	-2 000	-38 600	to	34 600
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 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.