6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Dec 2007 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/01/2008   
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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Nov 2007
Dec 2007
Nov 07 to Dec 07
Dec 06 to Dec 07

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
10 570.4
10 588.5
18.2
2.6
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
480.9
483.1
2.2
-2.1
%
Unemployment rate (%)
4.4
4.4
0.0
pts
-0.2
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.2
65.2
0.0
pts
0.4
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
10 582.5
10 602.6
20.1
2.5
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
498.8
473.9
-24.9
-4.5
%
Unemployment rate (%)
4.5
4.3
-0.2
pts
-0.3
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.3
65.2
-0.1
pts
0.3
pts

Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment rate
Graph: Unemployment rate



DECEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

  • EMPLOYMENT increased to 10,588,500
  • UNEMPLOYMENT increased to 483,100
  • UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remained at 4.4%
  • PARTICIPATION RATE remained at 65.2%


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

EMPLOYMENT
  • increased by 20,100 to 10,602,600. Full-time employment increased by 6,300 to 7,598,500 and part-time employment increased by 13,800 to 3,004,100.


UNEMPLOYMENT
  • decreased by 24,900 to 473,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased by 5,500 to 325,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 19,400 to 148,900.


UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
  • decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3%. The male unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 4.4%.


PARTICIPATION RATE
  • decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 65.2%.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
January 2008 14 February 2008
February 2008 13 March 2008
March 2008 10 April 2008
April 2008 8 May 2008
May 2008 12 June 2008
June 2008 10 July 2008



CHANGES THIS MONTH

Following each Census of Population and Housing, the ABS selects a new sample for the Labour Force Survey. This is done to ensure that the sample continues to accurately represent the distribution of the Australian population. A new sample has recently been selected based on the 2006 Census.


In order to reduce the potential impact of the change in sample on labour force statistics, the new sample will be introduced progressively, taking advantage of the existing rotation scheme. Using this scheme, the private dwelling sample in larger urban centres and less remote areas, representing approximately four-fifths of the total sample, will be phased in over the period November 2007 to June 2008. Within these areas, one-eighth of the new sample will be introduced each month under existing sample rotation arrangements. The rest of the sample (in remote, less populated areas and for non-private dwellings) will be introduced in two stages, March and April 2008. Detailed information about the new sample is provided in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design (cat. no. 6269.0), which was released on 28 November 2007.


An analysis of the incoming and outgoing components of the sample indicates that the phasing in of the new sample has had minimal impact on the estimates.



SAMPLING ERRORS

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. The published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of this variability and appear on pages 28 and 29.


The 95% confidence intervals below provide another way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates from sample surveys.

Movements in seasonally adjusted series between November and December 2007

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
20 100
-27 900
to
68 100
Total Unemployment
-24 900
-49 500
to
-300
Unemployment rate
-0.2 pts
-0.4 pts
to
0.0 pts
Participation rate
-0.1 pt
-0.3 pts
to
0.1 pt



INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Mary Piechowski on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.