6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Dec 2009 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/01/2010   
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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Nov 2009
Dec 2009
Nov 09
to Dec 09
Dec 08
to Dec 09

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
10 862.0
10 884.3
22.3
0.8
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
652.0
648.2
-3.8
20.9
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.7
5.6
0.0
pts
0.9
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.2
65.2
0.0
pts
-0.1
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
10 870.7
10 905.9
35.2
1.0
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
650.0
639.4
-10.6
22.7
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.6
5.5
-0.1
pts
0.9
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.2
65.2
0.0
pts
0.0
pts


Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment rate
Graph: Unemployment rate




DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased to 10,884,300
  • Unemployment decreased to 648,200
  • Unemployment rate decreased to 5.6%
  • Participation rate remained at 65.2%
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,533.9 million hours


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 35,200 (0.3%) to 10,905,900. Full-time employment increased 7,300 to 7,635,100 and part-time employment increased 27,900 to 3,270,800.
  • Unemployment decreased 10,600 (-1.6%) to 639,400. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 15,700 to 467,200 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 5,100 to 172,100.
  • Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.5%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.2 pts to 5.6% and the female unemployment rate remained at 5.5%.
  • Participation rate remained at 65.2%.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.0 million hours (-0.1%) to 1,535.6 million hours.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
January 2010 11 February 2010
February 2010 11 March 2010
March 2010 8 April 2010
April 2010 13 May 2010
May 2010 10 June 2010
June 2010 8 July 2010



CHANGES THIS MONTH

The re-instatement of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) sample is complete. The sample was introduced over a four month period, commencing in September 2009. Detailed information about the sample reinstatement is available in Information Paper: Labour force Survey Sample Design, Nov 2007 (Third edition) (cat. no. 6269.0).


SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Therefore, published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability, see pages 33 and 34. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. This represents a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between November 2009 and December 2009

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
35 200
-17 800
to
88 200
Total Unemployment
-10 600
-41 600
to
20 400
Unemployment rate
-0.1 pts
-0.3 pts
to
0.1 pts
Participation rate
0.0 pts
-0.4 pts
to
0.4 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 Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.