FEBRUARY KEY FIGURES

		Jan 2015	Feb 2015	Jan 15 to Feb 15		Feb 14 to Feb 15
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 640.0	11 654.0	14.0		1.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	778.7	781.6	2.9		8.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.3	6.3	0.0	pts	0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.7	0.0	pts	0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 636.8	11 652.4	15.6		1.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	793.1	777.3	-15.8		7.3	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	6.4	6.3	-0.1	pts	0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.7	64.6	-0.1	pts	0.0	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

FEBRUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 11,654,000 from a revised January 2015 estimate.
• Unemployment increased to 781,600 from a revised January 2015 estimate.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 6.3%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.7%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 3.1 million hours to 1,611.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 15,600 to 11,652,400 from a revised January 2015 estimate. Full-time employment increased 10,300 to 8,062,000 and part-time employment increased 5,300 to 3,590,400 from a revised January 2015 estimate.
• Unemployment decreased 15,800 to 777,300. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 2,800 to 553,000 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 18,600 to 224,300.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 6.3%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 64.6% from a revised January 2015 estimate.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 13.0 million hours (0.8%) to 1 ,620.8 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased 0.3 pts to 15.1%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 14.9%. The male labour force underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.1%. The female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 17.1%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
March 2015	16 April 2015
April 2015	7 May 2015
May 2015	11 June 2015
June 2015	9 July 2015
July 2015	6 August 2015
August 2015	10 September 2015

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

This issue includes estimates rebenchmarked to the latest population estimates and projections. For details see page 8. What's new in the Labour Force on page 7 mentions two upcoming changes - the annual seasonal reanalysis to be incorporated in the March 2015 issue and the proposed timing for introducing new Labour Force outputs. This issue also includes an article on the take up rate of the online Labour Force questionnaire.


CHANGED TIMING OF MARCH 2015 RELEASES

To enable the results of the annual seasonal reanalysis to be fully validated before being incorporated into the Labour Force series, the March 2015 issue of this publication will be released on 16 April not 9 April as previously advised. As a consequence Labour Force, Australia, Detailed (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) will be released on 23 April.


ROUNDING

Estimates of change shown on the front cover and used in the commentary 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. Published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability (see Standard Errors section). The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. There is a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

MOVEMENTS IN SEASONALLY ADJUSTED SERIES BETWEEN JANUARY 2015 AND FEBRUARY 2015
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	15 600	-42 400	to	73 600
Total Unemployment	-15 800	-56 200	to	24 600
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts

INQUIRIES

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