JULY KEY FIGURES

		Jun 2018	Jul 2018	Jun 18 to Jul 18		Jul 17 to Jul 18
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12 554.7	12 581.6	26.9		2.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	714.4	713.0	-1.3		-1.7	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.4	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.5	65.5	0.0	pts	0.3	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12 579.1	12 575.2	-3.9		2.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	711.7	706.0	-5.7		-3.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.3	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.7	65.5	-0.1	pts	0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

JULY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 26,900 to 12,581,600.
• Unemployment decreased 1,300 to 713,000.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.4%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 65.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.1 million hours (0.2%) to 1,748.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 3,900 to 12,575,200. Full-time employment increased 19,300 to 8,587,500 and part-time employment decreased 23,200 to 3,987,700.
• Unemployment decreased 5,700 to 706,000. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 2,300 to 504,100 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 8,000 to 201,900.
• Unemployment rate decreased by less than 0.1 pts to 5.3%.
• Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 65.5%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 4.0 million hours (0.2%) to 1,749.6 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
August 2018	13 September 2018
September 2018	18 October 2018
October 2018	15 November 2018
November 2018	20 December 2018
December 2018	24 January 2019

UPDATE ON MONTHLY UNDEREMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES

As previously advised, the ABS intends to release monthly trend and seasonally adjusted underemployment and underutilisation measures in the September issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) on 18 October 2018. Further information on the new monthly series, including changes that will be made to the suite of time series spreadsheets, will be included in the August issue, on 13 September 2018.


MONTHLY HOURS WORKED IN ALL JOBS

Each year, the Monthly hours worked in all jobs series are benchmarked to an annual hours worked estimate. This annual process was conducted in July 2018 and resulted in minor revisions to all Monthly hours worked in all jobs series.

In the March 2018 publication, as part of the Annual Seasonal Re-analysis, the ABS implemented some minor improvements to trend estimation for most series. With the July 2018 publication, the ABS extended these improvements to the Monthly hours worked in all jobs series. This improvement to hours worked estimates will reduce the extent of revisions in trend series over time. Improvements to the trend estimation will have no impact on the estimation of seasonally adjusted estimates.


NEW LABOUR FORCE SURVEY SAMPLE PHASE-IN

Since May 2013, the Labour Force Survey sample has been selected using information collected in the 2011 Census of Population and Housing. The effectiveness of the Labour Force sample is maintained by updating it with information from the most recent Census.

Commencing with July 2018, the ABS will utilise information from the 2016 Census for sample selection with the new sample phased in over eight months from July 2018. Detailed information on the new sample, including the use of the ABS Address Register, can be found in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design, Jul 2018 (cat. no. 6269.0), which was released on 30 July 2018.

As with previous sample changes, impacts on the data are expected to be minimal and will be monitored.


ROUNDING

Estimates of changes 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, movement 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 movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. 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 JUNE 2018 AND JULY 2018
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-3 900	-64 300	to	56 500
Total Unemployment	-5 700	-42 100	to	30 700
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email <client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.