DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Quarter		Year ended
		September 2016	December 2016	December 2015	December 2016
Number of disputes
	Commenced in period (no.)	86	41	224	254
	Total (no.)	93	48	228	259
Employees involved
	Newly involved ('000)	25.9	36.4	72.8	105.8
	Total ('000)	26.3	37.5	73.3	105.9
Working days lost ('000)		34.9	37.2	83.4	124.5

Source(s): Industrial Disputes, Australia

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


QUARTERLY ESTIMATES

• In December quarter 2016, there were 48 disputes, 45 fewer than in September quarter 2016.
• The number of employees involved in industrial disputes in December quarter 2016 was 37,500, an increase from 26,300 in September quarter 2016.
• There were 37,200 working days lost due to industrial disputation in December quarter 2016, an increase from 34,900 in September quarter 2016.
• The Construction industry (15,800) had the highest number of working days lost by industry, accounting for 43% of total working days lost.
• Queensland (21,200) had the highest number of working days lost of any state or territory in December quarter 2016, accounting for 57% of total working days lost. Queensland also had the highest number of working days lost per thousand employees (9.9) for the quarter.

YEAR ENDED ESTIMATES

• During the year ended December 2016, there were 259 disputes, 31 more than in the year ended December 2015.
• During the year ended December 2016, there were 124,500 working days lost, compared with 83,400 in the year ended December 2015.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2017 June 2017	1 June 2017 7 September 2017

REVISIONS TO WORKING DAYS LOST PER THOUSAND EMPLOYEES SERIES

Working days lost per thousand employees are calculated for a quarterly period by dividing the total number of working days lost in the period by the total number of employees in the Australian labour force in the period (obtained from the ABS Labour Force Survey) and multiplying by 1,000. The quarterly Labour Force estimates (sourced from cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) were rebenchmarked for the November 2016 release, as part of a quarterly rebenchmarking process. As a result, the Industrial Disputes working days lost per thousand employees time series has been revised. These updates are reflected in Tables 2 and 3 of this release and the associated time series spreadsheets. The separate series of working days lost is not impacted and remains unchanged.


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