JULY KEY FIGURES

		Jun 2008	Jul 2008	Jun 08 to Jul 08		Jul 07 to Jul 08
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 712.9	10 718.8	5.9		2.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	476.7	481.7	4.9		2.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.3	0.0	pts	0.0	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.3	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 710.6	10 721.5	10.9		2.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	475.5	481.1	5.7		2.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.3	0.0	pts	0.0	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.3	0.0	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

JULY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,718,800
• UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 481,700
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained steady at 4.3%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained steady at 65.3%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• increased by 10,900 to 10,721,500. Full-time employment increased by 53,700 to 7,718,400 and part-time employment decreased by 42,800 to 3,003,100.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• increased by 5,700 to 481,100. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased by 7,200 to 325,800 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 1,500 to 155,300.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• remained steady at 4.3%. The male unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 3.9%, and the female unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.8%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• remained steady at 65.3%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
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
January 2009	12 February 2009

2008-09 SAMPLE REDUCTION

As foreshadowed in recent editions of this publication, the sample size of the Labour Force Survey for July 2008 was reduced by 24% when compared with the June 2008 sample. Detailed information about the sample reduction is provided in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design, Nov 2007 (Second edition) (cat. no. 6269.0), which was released on 25 July 2008.

The reduced sample will still be representative, with selections made across all parts of Australia. However, there will be increased volatility in the estimates, particularly the original and seasonally adjusted estimates. Therefore, the ABS continues to encourage users to focus on trend estimates.


SAMPLING ERRORS

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. 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.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between June and July 2008
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	10 900	-56 700	to	78 500
Total Unemployment	5 700	-24 900	to	36 300
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 or Mary Piechowski on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.