SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Aug 2013	Sep 2013	Aug 13 to Sep 13		Sep 12 to Sep 13
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 647.0	11 646.8	-0.2		0.9	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	706.1	706.4	0.3		9.1	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.7	5.7	0.0	pts	0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.0	65.0	-0.1	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 636.7	11 645.8	9.1		0.8	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	711.9	697.1	-14.7		4.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.6	-0.1	pts	0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.0	64.9	-0.1	pts	-0.5	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased to 11,646,800.
• Unemployment increased to 706,400 from a revised August 2013 estimate.
• Unemployment rate at 5.7%.
• Participation rate steady at 65.0%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,645.8 million hours from a revised August 2013 estimate.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 9,100 (0.1%) to 11,645,800. Full-time employment increased 5,000 to 8,133,700 and part-time employment increased 4,100 to 3,512,100.
• Unemployment decreased 14,700 (2.1%) to 697,100. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 5,000 to 509,200 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 9,800 to 187,900.
• The unemployment rate decreased to 5.6%, a decrease of 0.1 pts based on unrounded estimates.
• The participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 64.9%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 6.4 million hours to 1,641.5 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2013	7 November 2013
November 2013	12 December 2013
December 2013	16 January 2014
January 2014	13 February 2014
February 2014	13 March 2014
March 2014	10 April 2014

NOTES RELATING TO SEPTEMBER ISSUE

See page 5 for details on the following:

• Rebenchmarking of Labour Force Estimates
• Rebuild of the Overseas Arrivals and Departures System.

FEATURE ARTICLE

To assist in the interpretation of Labour Force statistics, the article on page 6 of this issue describes the definition of full-time and part-time employment status used in the Labour Force Survey.


ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly and quarterly 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, 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 AUGUST 2013 AND SEPTEMBER 2013
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	9 100	-48 100	to	66 300
Total Unemployment	-14 700	-51 100	to	21 700
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

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Labour Force on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.