NOVEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Oct 2009	Nov 2009	Oct 09 to Nov 09		Nov 08 to Nov 09
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	10 827.1	10 844.4	17.3		0.4	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	661.8	659.4	-2.4		28.9	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.7	0.0	pts	1.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.2	65.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	10 837.0	10 868.2	31.2		0.6	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	666.3	653.1	-13.3		27.2	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.8	5.7	-0.1	pts	1.1	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.3	65.2	0.0	pts	-0.1	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment rate

NOVEMBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased to 10,844,400
• Unemployment decreased to 659,400
• Unemployment rate decreased to 5.7%
• Participation rate remained at 65.2%
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,528.3 million hours

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 31,200 (0.3%) to 10,868,200. Full-time employment increased 30,800 to 7,627,400 and part-time employment increased slightly, up 300, to 3,240,700.
• Unemployment decreased 13,300 to 653,100. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 11,100 to 486,400 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 2,100 to 166,700.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.7%. The male unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.8% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pt to 5.5%.
• Participation rate decreased slightly to 65.2%.
• Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 13.4 million hours (0.9%) to 1,536.3 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (QUARTERLY CHANGE)

• Trend estimates: Labour Force underutilisation rate constant at 13.6%
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: Labour Force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pt to 13.5%. The male labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.1 pt to 11.9% and the female labour force underutilisation rate decreased 0.3 pts to 15.3%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
December 2009	14 January 2010
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

CHANGES THIS MONTH

As foreshadowed in recent editions of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) the re-instatement of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) sample commenced in September 2009 and will continue until December 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).


REVISION TO POPULATION BENCHMARKS

The ABS will revise Labour Force Survey population benchmarks from November 2007 in mid 2010. The revisions will impact on level estimates, such as the number of persons employed and unemployed, but will have negligible impact on movement estimates or estimates of rates, such as the unemployment rate. Further information is available in October 2009 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).


LABOUR FORCE SURVEY STANDARD PRODUCTS AND DATA ITEM GUIDE (cat. no. 6103.0)

On 4 December 2009 the ABS released its Labour Force Survey Standard Products and Data Item Guide (cat. no. 6103.0). This product itemises and cross references all data contained within the Labour Force Survey standard products, with an explanation of each data item, including relevant formats, and product location.


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 October 2009 and November 2009
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	31 200	-23 400	to	85 800
Total Unemployment	-13 300	-45 300	to	18 700
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.