LABOUR FORCE

JOB VACANCIES

In original terms, South Australia's total number of job vacancies decreased to about 10,000 in August 2007 from 10,200 in May 2007. The August 2007 vacancies were 11% higher than in August 2006. Australia-wide, job vacancies increased from 166,500 in May 2007 to 173,100 in August 2007. The Australian job vacancies in August 2007 were 12% higher than in August 2006.


EMPLOYED PERSONS

In trend terms, total employment in South Australia rose by 1.0% from a recent low of 753,400 persons in March 2007 to its highest ever level of 761,000 persons in August 2007. Total employment in Australia also recorded a series high, about 10,502,000 persons in August 2007.



UNEMPLOYMENT

The trend estimate unemployment rate for South Australia has remained steady at 4.8% for each of the three months to August 2007 after reaching a recent peak of 5.3% in January 2007. Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3% in August 2007, although this was lower than the 4.5% recorded in January 2007.



For South Australia, the trend unemployment rate for females decreased to 4.5% in August 2007 down from 4.9% in January 2007. For males the unemployment rate decreased to 5.0% in August 2007, down from 5.5% in January 2007.



PARTICIPATION RATE

The trend estimate of the participation rate for South Australia in August 2007 was 62.2%, down from 62.5% a year ago. In the ten year period from August 1997, the lowest estimate was 59.7% in May and June of 1998. Australia's trend participation rate increased slightly to 65.0% in June 2007 and remained steady through to August 2007. The lowest participation rate reported for Australia for the ten year period from August 1997 was 62.8% in April and May of 1999.



For South Australia, the trend participation rate for females was 55.6% in August 2007, lower than the rate recorded a year ago (55.9%). Over the past 12 months, the highest rate was recorded in November 2006 (56.5%), falling slightly to 56.2% in January 2007 and has remained above 55.0% since February 2006. Nationally the female participation rate increased slightly to 57.8% in July and August 2007. This is higher than the rate in August 2007 (57.5%).

The participation rate for South Australian males had fallen from 69.5% in August 2006 to 69.0% in August 2007. The Australian participation rate for males has been consistently higher than that for South Australia since May 1997, and was 72.4% in August 2007.