SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2011	Sep 2011	Aug 11 to Sep 11		Sep 10 to Sep 11
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 441.7	11 441.8	0.0		1.0	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	624.5	633.3	8.8		2.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.2	0.1	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.6	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 430.9	11 451.2	20.4		1.1	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	638.0	634.2	-3.8		4.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.3	5.2	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.6	65.6	0.0	pts	0.0	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,441,800.
• Unemployment increased to 633,300.
• Unemployment rate steady at 5.2% from a revised August 2011 rate.
• Participation rate steady at 65.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,620.7 million hours from a revised August 2011 estimate.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 20,400 (0.2%) to 11,451,200. Full-time employment increased 10,800 persons to 8,044,200 and part-time employment increased 9,600 persons to 3,407,100.
• Unemployment decreased 3,800 (0.6%) to 634,200. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 6,200 to 453,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 2,400 to 181,100.
• The unemployment rate decreased to 5.2%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 5.2% and the female unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3%.
• The participation rate remained steady at 65.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 9.4 million hours to 1,615.1 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2011	10 November 2011
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

FAMILIES

On 28 September, the ABS re-launched the annual publication Labour Force, Australia: Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families (cat. no. 6224.0.55.001). The publication has been expanded to include summary of findings and commentary on the latest estimates, a new summary spreadsheet alongside the regularly issued datacubes, and a new glossary and further explanations around the concepts and definitions used in compiling family estimates from the Labour Force Survey. Estimates for jobless families have been published for the first time, where 1 in 10 of the 2.9 million families with dependants had no employed family members in June 2011. For more information, refer to the publication (cat. no. 6224.0.55.001).


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.


SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this 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 AUGUST 2011 AND SEPTEMBER 2011
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	20 400	-34 400	to	75 200
Total Unemployment	-3 800	-35 600	to	28 000
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 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\>.