FEBRUARY KEY FIGURES

		Jan 2010	Feb 2010	Jan 10 to Feb 10		Feb 09 to Feb 10
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 944.8	10 971.6	26.7		1.7	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	623.0	614.7	-8.3		3.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.4	5.3	-0.1	pts	0.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	-0.2	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 970.7	10 971.1	0.4		1.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	605.2	615.9	10.7		1.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.3	0.1	pts	0.0	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.2	-0.1	pts	-0.3	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

FEBRUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 10,971,600
• Unemployment decreased to 614,700
• Unemployment rate decreased to 5.3%
• Participation rate at 65.2%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,539.6 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 400 to 10,971,100. Full-time employment increased 11,400 to 7,659,700 and part-time employment decreased 11,000 to 3,311,400.
• Unemployment increased 10,700 (1.8%) to 615,900. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 9,200 to 447,100 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 1,500 to 168,800.
• Unemployment rate increased 0.1 pt to 5.3%. The male unemployment rate increased 0.2 pts to 5.4% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.2%.
• Participation rate decreased 0.1 pt to 65.2%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 35.9 million hours (2.4%) to 1,553.2 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: Labour Force underutilisation rate decreased 0.3 pts to 13.0%.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: Labour Force underutilisation rate decreased 0.6 pts to 12.8%. The male labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.7 pts to 11.1% and the female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.4 pts to 14.9%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
March 2010	8 April 2010
April 2010	13 May 2010
May 2010	10 June 2010
June 2010	8 July 2010
July 2010	12 August 2010
August 2010	9 September 2010

CHANGES THIS MONTH

This issue includes trend and seasonally adjusted measures of aggregate monthly hours worked by full time and part time employment, by males and females; together with an expansion in the historical series to include estimates from July 1978. See article Expansion of aggregate monthly hours worked in the January 2010 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).


FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AGGREGATE MONTHLY HOURS WORKED

From the March 2010 issue, the ABS will introduce a seasonally adjusted quarterly measure of aggregate monthly hours worked based on four industry sectors; specifically, market (agriculture and rest of market) and non-market (education and rest of non-market). See article Expansion of aggregate monthly hours worked in the January 2010 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).


ROUNDING

Estimates of monthly change shown on the front cover 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. 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 January 2010 and February 2010
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval	95% Confidence interval	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	400	-52 800	to	53 600
Total Unemployment	10 700	-22 500	to	43 900
Unemployment rate	0.1 pt	-0.1 pt	to	0.3 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pt	-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 Steve Wood on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au.