6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Dec 2013 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/01/2014   
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MEDIA RELEASE
16 January 2014
Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)
03/2014
Australia's unemployment rate increased slightly to 5.8 per cent in December 2013

Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points but the rounded estimate remained at 5.8 per cent in December, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

The ABS reported the number of people employed decreased by 22,600 to 11,629,500 in December. The decrease in employment was due to decreased full-time employment, down 31,600 people to 8,067,700, offset by increased part-time employment, up 9,000 to 3,561,800. The decrease in total employment was driven by decreases in male and female full-time employment and male part-time employment.

The number of people unemployed increased by 8,000 people to 722,000 in December, the ABS reported.

The ABS monthly seasonally adjusted aggregate hours worked series increased in December, up 0.6 million hours to 1,634.0 million hours.

The ABS reported a seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate decrease of 0.2 percentage points to 64.6 per cent in December.

More details are in the December 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), as well as the upcoming December 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) due for release next week on January 23. These publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au.


Media note:
When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.