AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 2016	Aug 2016	Jul 16 to Aug 16		Aug 15 to Aug 16
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 955.3	11 965.1	9.9		1.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	721.4	721.0	-0.4		-5.6	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.7	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.8	64.8	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 967.6	11 963.7	-3.9		1.5	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	723.8	713.3	-10.5		-6.8	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.6	-0.1	pts	-0.5	pts
	Participation rate (%)	64.9	64.7	-0.2	pts	-0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

AUGUST KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 9,900 to 11,965,100.
• Unemployment decreased 400 to 721,000.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 64.8%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 1.7 million hours to 1,657.1 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 3,900 to 11,963,700. Full-time employment increased 11,500 to 8,166,100 and part-time employment decreased 15,400 to 3,797,700.
• Unemployment decreased 10,500 to 713,300. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 14,900 to 496,900 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 25,400 to 216,400.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 5.6%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.2 pts to 64.7%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 3.9 million hours to 1,656.0 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 14.3%. The underemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 8.6%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: The labour force underutilisation rate increased 0.1 pts to 14.3%. The underemployment rate increased by 0.3 pts to 8.7%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2016	20 October 2016
October 2016	17 November 2016
November 2016	15 December 2016
December 2016	19 January 2017
January 2017	16 February 2017
February 2017	16 March 2017

CENSUS 2016

The ABS conducted the 2016 Census in respect of 9 August 2016. To assist in undertaking the 2016 Census, the ABS employed around 38,000 people, including around 27,000 field officers for August and September 2016, and a further 11,000 people in other temporary roles to support special enumeration strategies, and to assist with the management of the Census. Of the latter 11,000 roles, these involved a range of different roles, with different lengths of employment and start dates.

While some people employed for the Census were not employed in the previous month, most were already employed in another job. The employment estimates for August 2016 will therefore not reflect a large contribution to employment from the Census, but will reflect a contribution in the number of hours worked. Some of the people employed for the Census may also change from being part-time to full-time over August and September, as a result of working additional hours.


WHAT' S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

For details regarding the quarterly population rebenchmarking, the upcoming release of the new education outputs in the August 2016 release of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003), and the addition of pivot table outputs in the August 2016 release of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001), please refer to the "What's New in the Labour Force" on page 9.


ROUNDING

Estimates of changes shown on the front cover and used in the commentary have been caluclated 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 JULY 2016 AND AUGUST 2016
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-3 900	-62 300	to	54 500
Total Unemployment	-10 500	-47 500	to	26 500
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts
Participation rate	-0.2 pts	-0.6 pts	to	0.2 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.