• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

LABOUR FORCE STATUS

• Western Australia's unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) increased to 5.8% in September 2009, after falling to 5.4% in August. Through August and September 2009 the national unemployment rate was 5.8%.
• While the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has been very volatile in recent months, the September 2009 figure for WA (5.8%) was considerably higher than the corresponding figure for September 2008 (3.0%).

1 September key figures
	Sep 09	Aug 09	Sep 08
Trend
Employed Persons ('000)	1 152.2	1 154.5	1 173.8
Unemployment Rate (%)	5.7	5.6	2.7
Participation Rate (%)	68.2	68.4	69.3
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed Persons ('000)	1 151.8	1 158.2	1 169.5
Unemployment Rate (%)	5.8	5.4	3.0
Participation Rate (%)	68.2	68.5	69.2
Source: Labour Force, Australia, cat. no. 6202.0.

• In trend terms, Western Australia's unemployment rate has been rising steadily for the past 12 months and in September 2009 reached its highest level (5.7%) since January 2004.
• For the 5 years after September 2003, unemployment rates for Western Australian men were lower than for women as a consequence of the male-dominated resources boom. With the advent of the global economic downturn and subsequent job losses in mining and mining support activities in WA, the gap between the sexes in unemployment levels began to diminish in the second half of 2008. By September 2009, 5.6% of men in the labour force were unemployed compared with 5.8% of women (trend).

• In seasonally adjusted terms, the total number of employed persons fell in September 2009 by 6,400, to 1,151,800. However, the July 2009 figure (1,147,300) was the lowest recorded since May 2008 (1,138,200).
• The September 2009 employment figure for Western Australia in seasonally adjusted terms was 17,700 less than for September 2008.