DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2009	Dec 2009	Nov 09 to Dec 09		Dec 08 to Dec 09
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 862.0	10 884.3	22.3		0.8	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	652.0	648.2	-3.8		20.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.6	0.0	pts	0.9	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 870.7	10 905.9	35.2		1.0	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	650.0	639.4	-10.6		22.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.5	-0.1	pts	0.9	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.0	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 10,884,300
• Unemployment decreased to 648,200
• Unemployment rate decreased to 5.6%
• Participation rate remained at 65.2%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,533.9 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 35,200 (0.3%) to 10,905,900. Full-time employment increased 7,300 to 7,635,100 and part-time employment increased 27,900 to 3,270,800.
• Unemployment decreased 10,600 (-1.6%) to 639,400. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 15,700 to 467,200 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 5,100 to 172,100.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.5%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.6% and the female unemployment rate remained at 5.5%.
• Participation rate remained at 65.2%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.0 million hours (-0.1%) to 1,535.6 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2010	11 February 2010
February 2010	11 March 2010
March 2010	8 April 2010
April 2010	13 May 2010
May 2010	10 June 2010
June 2010	8 July 2010

CHANGES THIS MONTH

The re-instatement of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) sample is complete. The sample was introduced over a four month period, commencing in September 2009. Detailed information about the sample reinstatement is available in Information Paper: Labour force Survey Sample Design, Nov 2007 (Third edition) (cat. no. 6269.0).


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 November 2009 and December 2009
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	35 200	-17 800	to	88 200
Total Unemployment	-10 600	-41 600	to	20 400
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.3 pts	to	0.1 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, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.