SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2010	Sep 2010	Aug 10 to Sep 10		Sep 09 to Sep 10
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 276.1	11 300.4	24.3		3.1	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	613.0	611.4	-1.7		-8.8	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.1	0.0	pts	-0.6	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.5	65.5	0.0	pts	0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 275.4	11 324.9	49.5		3.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	608.7	611.0	2.4		-8.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.1	5.1	0.0	pts	-0.6	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.4	65.6	0.2	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,300,400
• Unemployment decreased to 611,400
• Unemployment rate at 5.1%
• Participation rate at 65.5%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,595.8 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 49,500 (0.4%) to 11,324,900. Full-time employment increased 55,800 to 7,984,500 and part-time employment decreased 6,300 to 3,340,400.
• Unemployment increased 2,400 (0.4%) to 611,000. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 6,500 to 422,400 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 8,900 to 188,600.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.1%. The male unemployment rate increased 0.1 pt to 5.0% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.2%.
• Participation rate increased 0.2 pts to 65.6%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.0 million hours (0.1%) to 1,594.1 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2010	11 November 2010
November 2010	9 December 2010
December 2010	13 January 2011
January 2011	10 February 2011
February 2011	10 March 2011
March 2011	7 April 2011

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. Therefore, published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability, see pages 33 and 34. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. This represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between August 2010 and September 2010
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	49 500	-5 100	to	104 100
Total Unemployment	2 400	-28 600	to	33 400
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.2 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.6 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.