6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Dec 2014 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/01/2015   
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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Nov 2014
Dec 2014
Nov 14 to Dec 14
Dec 13 to Dec 14

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
11 632.4
11 646.8
14.4
1.4
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
770.2
770.9
0.7
7.7
%
Unemployment rate (%)
6.2
6.2
0.0
pts
0.3
pts
Participation rate (%)
64.7
64.7
0.0
pts
0.0
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
11 641.9
11 679.4
37.4
1.9
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
775.4
759.2
-16.2
5.6
%
Unemployment rate (%)
6.2
6.1
-0.1
pts
0.2
pts
Participation rate (%)
64.7
64.8
0.0
pts
0.2
pts


Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate
Graph: Unemployment Rate




DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased to 11,646,800.
  • Unemployment increased to 770,900 from a revised November 2014 estimate.
  • Unemployment remained steady at 6.2% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
  • Participation rate remained steady at 64.7% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 1.8 million hours to 1,602.0 million hours.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 37,400 to 11,679,400. Full-time employment increased 41,600 to 8,105,300 and part-time employment decreased 4,100 to 3,574,100.
  • Unemployment decreased 16,200 to 759,200. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 6,000 to 551,500 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 22,300 to 207,700.
  • Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 6.1% from a revised November 2014 estimate.
  • Participation rate increased less than 0.1 pts to 64.8%.
  • Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 7.7 million hours (0.5%) to 1 ,597.8 million hours.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
January 2015 12 February 2015
February 2015 12 March 2015
March 2015 9 April 2015
April 2015 7 May 2015
May 2015 11 June 2015
June 2015 9 July 2015



WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

For information regarding a refinement to the aggregate monthly hours worked series, refer to 'What's new in the Labour Force' on pages 5-6.

The information paper Questionnaires used in the Labour Force Survey, July 2014 (cat. no. 6232.0) was released on 19 December 2014 and is available from the ABS website. The paper describes changes implemented in the questionnaire in July 2014 and a copy of the standard Labour Force questionnaire.


ROUNDING

Estimates of change 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 NOVEMBER 2014 AND DECEMBER 2014

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
37 400
-20 600
to
95 400
Total Unemployment
-16 200
-53 800
to
21 400
Unemployment rate
-0.1 pts
-0.5 pts
to
0.3 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 Labour Force on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au\>. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.