JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		Dec 2015	Jan 2016	Dec 15 to Jan 16		Jan 15 to Jan 16
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	11 890.1	11 909.9	19.8		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	743.7	739.4	-4.4		-3.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.9	5.8	0.0	pts	-0.4	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.5	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	11 902.4	11 894.5	-7.9		2.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	731.2	761.4	30.2		-2.8	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	6.0	0.2	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	0.5	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

JANUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 19,800 to 11,909,900.
• Unemployment decreased 4,400 to 739,400.
• Unemployment rate decreased less than 0.1 pts to 5.8%, based on unrounded estimates.
• Participation rate remained steady at 65.2%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.6 million hours to 1,652.7 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment decreased 7,900 to 11,894,500. Full-time employment decreased 40,600 to 8,185,800 and part-time employment increased 32,700 to 3,708,700.
• Unemployment increased 30,200 to 761,400. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work increased 25,600 to 544,100 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 4,600 to 217,300.
• Unemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 6.0%.
• Participation rate remained steady at 65.2%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 10.9 million hours to 1,656.0 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2016	17 March 2016
March 2016	14 April 2016
April 2016	19 May 2016
May 2016	16 June 2016
June 2016	14 July 2016
July 2016	18 August 2016

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

For details regarding the regular update to the seasonal adjustment process, the future dissemination of detailed Labour Force data, a new analysis spreadsheet and the publication of quarterly rebenchmarked data, refer to the "What's new in the Labour Force" on pages 8-9.


ROUNDING

Estimates of 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, movement 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 movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. 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 DECEMBER 2015 AND JANUARY 2016
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	-7 900	-66 500	to	50 700
Total Unemployment	30 200	-9 600	to	70 000
Unemployment rate	0.2 pts	-0.2 pts	to	0.6 pts
Participation rate	0.0 pts	-0.4 pts	to	0.4 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.