SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2008	Sep 2008	Aug 08 to Sep 08		Sep 07 to Sep 08
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 729.7	10 737.0	7.3		2.0	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	475.4	474.1	-1.2		-0.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.2	4.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 735.2	10 737.4	2.2		1.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	457.9	479.6	21.7		4.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.1	4.3	0.2	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.1	65.1	0.0	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,737,000
• UNEMPLOYMENT decreased to 474,100
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained steady at 4.2%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained steady at 65.2%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• increased by 2,200 to 10,737,400. Full-time employment decreased by 15,400 to 7,706,800 and part-time employment increased by 17,700 to 3,030,500.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• increased by 21,700 to 479,600. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased by 4,400 to 326,800 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased by 17,300 to 152,800.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3%. The male unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.0%, and the female unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.6%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• remained steady at 65.1%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2008	6 November 2008
November 2008	11 December 2008
December 2008	15 January 2009
January 2009	12 February 2009
February 2009	12 March 2009
March 2009	9 April 2009

ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly change shown 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.


CHANGE TO LABOUR FORCE SURVEY COLLECTION PERIOD AND REFERENCE WEEK

From September 2008 onwards, procedures for the Labour Force Survey (LFS) have changed such that LFS interviewing commenced on Sunday between the 5th and the 11th of the month, and the reference week changed to be the prior Sunday to Saturday. Interviews previously commenced on the Monday between the 6th and 12th of each month (with exception at the end and beginning of each calendar year).

The new procedures will increase the likelihood of contact with households, thereby increasing the efficiency and/or accuracy of the LFS. ABS has determined there is no statistical impact on the estimates. There is no impact on LFS release dates.


SAMPLING ERRORS

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Because the entire population is not enumerated, the published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability and appear on pages 28 and 29.

The 95% confidence intervals below provide another way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates from sample surveys. The interval bounded by the two limits is the 95% confidence interval, which represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between August and September 2008
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	2 200	-58 400	to	62 800
Total Unemployment	21 700	-9 900	to	53 300
Unemployment rate	0.2 pts	0.0pts	to	0.4 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4pts	to	0.4 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Rebecca Cash on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.