AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2008	Aug 2008	Jul 08 to Aug 08		Aug 07 to Aug 08
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 726.8	10 734.9	8.1		2.2	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	474.1	474.2	0.1		0.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.2	4.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.2	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 729.7	10 744.3	14.6		2.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	480.2	457.3	-22.9		-3.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	4.3	4.1	-0.2	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.2	-0.1	pts	0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,734,900
• UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 474,200
• UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained steady at 4.2%
• PARTICIPATION RATE remained steady at 65.2%

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT

• increased by 14,600 to 10,744,300. Full-time employment increased by 7,500 to 7,729,700 and part-time employment increased by 7,200 to 3,014,600.

UNEMPLOYMENT

• decreased by 22,900 to 457,300. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased by 4,000 to 321,900 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 18,900 to 135,500.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

• decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.1%. The male unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 3.8%, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.4%.

PARTICIPATION RATE

• decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.2%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
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
February 2009	12 March 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.


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 July and August 2008
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	14 600	-45 800	to	75 000
Total Unemployment	-22 900	-52 900	to	7 100
Unemployment rate	-0.2 pts	-0.4pts	to	0.0 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5pts	to	0.3 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.