MEDIA RELEASE
20 July 2017	Embargo: 11:30 am (Canberra Time)	86/2017

Monthly trend full-time employment increased for the ninth straight month in June 2017, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. Full-time employment grew by a further 30,000 persons, while part-time employment decreased by 4,000 persons, underpinning an increase in total employment of 26,000 persons.

"Full-time employment has increased by around 187,000 persons since September 2016, with particular strength over the past five months, averaging around 30,000 persons per month," Chief Economist for the ABS Bruce Hockman said. "Full-time employment now accounts for about 68 per cent of employment, however this is down from around 72 per cent a decade ago."

Over the past year, trend employment increased by 227,000 persons (or 1.9 per cent), which is the same as the average year-on-year growth over the past 20 years. It has increased since December 2016, when the year-on-year growth was at 0.8 per cent and reflected relatively low employment growth through most of 2016.

The trend monthly hours worked increased by 6.2 million hours (0.4 per cent) to 1,691.5 million hours in June 2017. Most of this increase was hours worked by full-time workers.

The trend unemployment rate in Australia decreased by less than 0.1 percentage points to 5.6 per cent in June 2017.

Trend series smooth the more volatile seasonally adjusted estimates and provide the best measure of the underlying behaviour of the labour market.

The seasonally adjusted number of persons employed increased by 14,000 in June 2017. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady at 5.6 per cent, after the May 2017 number was revised up to 5.6 per cent, and the seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate increased to 65.0 per cent.

More details are in the June 2017 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). In addition, further information, including regional labour market information, can be found in the upcoming June 2017 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001), due for release on 27 July 2017.

These publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website: https://www.abs.gov.au.

Media note:

• When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) must be attributed as the source.
• For media requests and interviews, contact the ABS Communications and Partnerships Section on 1300 175 070 (8.30am - 5pm Monday - Friday AEST).
• The ABS produces trend estimates to provide a more reliable indicator of the underlying behaviour of the Labour Force series. Trend estimates were introduced into the Labour Force series in the mid 1980s and are available back to February 1978. Trend estimates are considered the best indicators of the underlying behaviour in the labour market. See paragraphs 28 to 37 of the Explanatory Notes in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).
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