JUNE KEY FIGURES

		May 2008	Jun 2008	May 08 to Jun 08		Jun 07 to Jun 08
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 704.8	10 713.3	8.5		2.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	468.7	474.2	5.6		0.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.2	4.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.3	0.0	pts	0.4	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 685.9	10 715.7	29.8		2.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	476.6	473.8	-2.8		0.5	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.3	0.1	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

JUNE KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,713,300
• UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 474,200
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained steady at 4.2%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained steady at 65.3%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• increased by 29,800 to 10,715,700. Full-time employment increased by 24,000 to 7,664,600 and part-time employment increased by 5,800 to 3,051,100.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• decreased by 2,800 to 473,800. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased by 300 to 317,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 2,600 to 156,700.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• decreased slightly to 4.2%. The male unemployment rate remained steady at 4.0%, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 4.5%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• increased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.3%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
July 2008	7 August 2008
August 2008	11 September 2008
September 2008	9 October 2008
October 2008	6 November 2008
November 2008	11 December 2008
December 2008	15 January 2009

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW SAMPLE DESIGN

Following each Census of Population and Housing, the ABS selects a new sample for the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This is done to ensure that the sample continues to accurately represent the distribution of the Australian population. Cost savings were made in the 2006 sample redesign by taking advantage of the sampling efficiencies related to the introduction of composite estimation. This enabled an 11% reduction in the LFS sample with only minor reductions in data quality relative to the previous design.

The new sample, based on the 2006 Census, has been phased in over the period November 2007 to June 2008. Detailed information about the new sample is provided in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design (cat. no. 6269.0), which was released on 28 November 2007.


FORTHCOMING CHANGES

The ABS is facing a tight budget situation in 2008-09, which has led to a range of reductions in the ABS work program. One of the reductions is that from July 2008 the sample size of the LFS will be reduced by 24% when compared with the June 2008 sample implemented under the 2006 sample design.

The ABS will fully implement the sample reduction in July 2008. Implementing the full reduction in a single month will mean less common sample between June and July, and hence the standard error on movements will be slightly larger than if the reduction was phased in. However, in order to maximise the savings in 2008-09 the reduced sample needs to be fully implemented from July 2008.

The new sample, while smaller, will still be representative, with selections made in all parts of Australia. There will be increased volatility in the estimates, particularly the original and seasonally adjusted estimates, but this volatility will be random. Given the increased volatility in the original and seasonally adjusted estimates, the ABS would continue to encourage users to focus on trend estimates as the increased volatility seen in the original and seasonally adjusted estimates will be dampened through the 'trending' process.

Further information about the sample reduction was provided in the April and May issues of this publication. Last month's issue included a Technical Note outlining some changes to the population benchmarks used in producing LFS estimates. The article in the April issue highlights the reasons for the reduction, expected sample size, the impact on the quality of estimates and the impact on LFS products and associated surveys.


INQUIRIES

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