LABOUR FORCE


CONTENTS

Employed persons

Unemployment

Participation rate


EMPLOYED PERSONS

In trend terms, the total number of persons employed in South Australia has remained relatively stable since the beginning of the year with 802,400 persons employed in June 2010. This represents an increase of 1.2% over the estimate recorded in June 2009 with most of the growth occurring between August and December 2009. Nationally a total of 11,077,600 persons were employed in June 2010; an increase of 2.8% over the corresponding month of the previous year.

The number of males employed full-time in South Australia in June 2010 was 356,000 (in trend terms) remaining unchanged from the previous month. Looking at the composition of all male employees, those working full-time accounted for 82.2% of the male workforce, down from 83.1% in May 2009. The number of females employed full-time increased slightly to be 185,000 in June 2010. After eight consecutive increases, the estimate is now marginally below the peak recorded in May 2009 (185,200). At that time full-time female employees accounted for 49.8% of the female workforce. In June 2010, this proportion was 50.1%.


UNEMPLOYMENT

After falling from 5.6% to 5.0% between September 2009 and January 2010, the unemployment rate for South Australia (in trend terms) has risen for the last five consecutive months and was 5.5% in June 2010. Australian unemployment remained relatively stable at 5.2% in June 2010, sitting below the South Australian estimate for the second consecutive month.

Since recording a low of 4.9% in January and February 2010, the trend unemployment rate for males in South Australia has been on the rise, climbing to 5.4% in June 2010. This remains lower than the female unemployment rate for the seventh consecutive month. The trend unemployment rate for South Australian females has been steadily increasing since mid 2009 and was 5.5% in June 2010.

Nationally the trend unemployment rates for males and females in June 2010 was 5.1% and 5.3% respectively.

PARTICIPATION RATE

The trend estimate of the participation rate for South Australia has shown very little movement over recent months and was 63.2% in June 2010. Similarly, Australia's trend participation rate has also remained relatively stable over the same period, dropping marginally to be 65.1% in June.

In South Australia, the participation rate for males has fallen slightly over the last four months to be 69.5% in June 2010. The Australian participation rate for males remained steady at 72.1% in June 2010, showing little change for almost the last year and a half. From a peak of 57.9% in April and May 2009, the participation rate for South Australian females fell to 56.7% in December 2009. After holding steady at this level for the first quarter of 2010, female participation has risen to be 57.1% in June 2010. The Australian female participation rate remained steady at 58.4% in June 2010.