AUGUST KEY FIGURES

		Jul 19	Aug 19	Jul 19 to Aug 19	Aug 18 to Aug 19
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12,899.1	12,921.1	22.0	2.5%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	713.0	715.7	2.7	3.2%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.3	0.0 pts	0.0 pts
	Underemployment rate (%)	8.5	8.5	0.0 pts	0.1 pts
	Participation rate (%)	66.1	66.2	0.1 pts	0.6 pts
	Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000)	1,776.9	1,778.5	1.6	1.7%
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12,892.2	12,926.9	34.7	2.5%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	712.7	716.8	4.1	2.2%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.2	5.3	0.0 pts	0.0 pts
	Underemployment rate (%)	8.4	8.6	0.1 pts	0.4 pts
	Participation rate (%)	66.1	66.2	0.1 pts	0.5 pts
	Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000)	1,778.6	1,782.6	3.9	2.0%

EMPLOYED PERSONS



UNEMPLOYMENT RATE


AUGUST KEY POINTS

TREND ESTIMATES

Employment increased by 22,000 to 12,921,100 persons. Full-time employment increased by 7,200 to 8,828,400 persons and part-time employment increased by 14,700 to 4,092,700 persons.

Unemployment increased by 2,700 to 715,700 persons.

Unemployment rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 5.3%.

Participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 66.2%.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 1.6 million hours to 1,778.5 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES

Employment increased by 34,700 to 12,926,900 persons. Full-time employment decreased by 15,500 to 8,818,000 persons and part-time employment increased by 50,200 to 4,108,900 persons.

Unemployment increased by 4,100 to 716,800 persons.

Unemployment rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 5.3%.

Participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 66.2%.

Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 3.9 million hours to 1,782.6 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION

The monthly trend underemployment rate remained steady at 8.5%. The monthly underutilisation rate increased by less than 0.1 pts to 13.8%.

The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate increased by 0.1 pts to 8.6%. The monthly underutilisation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 13.8%.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Issue	Release Date
September 2019	17 October 2019
October 2019	14 November 2019
November 2019	19 December 2019
December 2019	23 January 2020
January 2020	20 February 2020
February 2020	19 March 2020

UPDATE ON QUARTERLY REBENCHMARKING

The ABS has revised the original Labour Force series for the previous 19 months to reflect the latest available preliminary and final estimates of Estimated Resident Population. This process ensures that the Labour Force series promptly reflects any change in population trends and minimises the size of revisions that can occur when the series are rebenchmarked following each Census of Population and Housing. It is expected that, on most occasions, the quarterly revisions will not be significant.

For further information about rebenchmarking, refer to the Rebenchmarking Labour Force Estimates article published in the February 2015 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).

REVIEW OF SOME RETIREMENT AND RETIREMENT INTENTIONS CONTENT

The ABS is currently undertaking a review of some of the survey content collected as part of the Multi-Purpose Household Survey. If you are currently using the current income component within Retirement and Retirement Intentions (cat. no. 6238.0), please contact us at labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

ROUNDING

Estimates of changes in the commentary have been calculated using un-rounded estimates, and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movement obtained from the rounded estimates. Graphs also depict un-rounded estimates.

SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Published estimates and movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. There is a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

	Monthly change		95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	34 700		-26 300	to	95 700
Total Unemployment	4 100		-32 900	to	41 100
Unemployment rate	0.0 pts		-0.2 pts	to	0.2 pts
Participation rate	0.1 pts		-0.3 pts	to	0.5 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email client.services@abs.gov.au or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.