6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Oct 2019 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/11/2019   
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OCTOBER KEY FIGURES


Sep 19
Oct 19
Sep 19 to Oct 19
Oct 18 to Oct 19

Trend
Employed people ('000)
12,923.4
12,935.7
12.3
2.1%
Unemployed people ('000)
720.6
722.4
1.8
6.4%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.3
5.3
0.0 pts
0.2 pts
Underemployment rate (%)
8.5
8.5
0.0 pts
0.2 pts
Participation rate (%)
66.1
66.1
0.0 pts
0.5 pts
Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000)
1,783.2
1,786.1
2.9
1.7%

Seasonally Adjusted
Employed people ('000)
12,938.2
12,919.2
-19.0
2.0%
Unemployed people ('000)
709.0
726.1
17.1
8.6%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.2
5.3
0.1 pts
0.3 pts
Underemployment rate (%)
8.3
8.5
0.2 pts
0.3 pts
Participation rate (%)
66.1
66.0
-0.1 pts
0.4 pts
Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000)
1,786.7
1,783.9
-2.8
1.4%


EMPLOYED PEOPLE
Graph shows, in both trend and seasonally adjusted terms, the monthly uptick in the Employed People increasing steadily from approximately 11,540,000 people in October 2014 to approximately 12,900,000 people in October 2019.


UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Graph shows, in both trend and seasonally adjusted terms, the monthly downturn in the Unemployment Rate steadily declining from 6.2 per cent in September 2014 to as low as 5.0 per cent in December 2018, before rising to 5.3 per cent in October 2019.





OCTOBER KEY POINTS

TREND ESTIMATES
  • Employment increased by 12,300 to 12,935,700 people. Full-time employment increased by 5,800 to 8,835,600 people and part-time employment increased by 6,500 to 4,100,000 people.
  • Unemployment increased by 1,800 to 722,400 people.
  • Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3%.
  • Participation rate remained steady at 66.1%.
  • Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased by 2.9 million hours to 1,786.1 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
  • Employment decreased by 19,000 to 12,919,200 people. Full-time employment decreased by 10,300 to 8,833,800 people and part-time employment decreased by 8,700 to 4,085,400 people.
  • Unemployment increased by 17,100 to 726,100 people.
  • Unemployment rate increased by 0.1 pts to 5.3%.
  • Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 66.0%.
  • Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased by 2.8 million hours to 1,783.9 million hours.

LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION
  • The monthly trend underemployment rate remained steady at 8.5%. The monthly underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.8%.
  • The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate increased by 0.2 pts to 8.5%. The monthly underutilisation rate increased by 0.3 pts to 13.8%.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

IssueRelease Date
November 201919 December 2019
December 201923 January 2020
January 202020 February 2020
February 202019 March 2020
March 202016 April 2020
April 202014 May 2020

IMPROVEMENTS TO TRENDING METHODS

As part of the 2019 Annual Seasonal Re-analysis (ASR), the outcomes of which were published in April 2019, improvements were identified in the estimation method of its trend series from moving from direct trending to indirect trending. The ABS has completed its review and confirmed that all Labour Force trend series should be indirectly trended, rather than a mixture of indirect and direct approaches. These changes will be reflected in November 2019 issue of the Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) released on 19 December 2019. Further information on this change can be found in the article Improvement to the Trending Method for the Labour Force Rates and Ratios.

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.



MOVEMENTS IN SEASONALLY ADJUSTED SERIES BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 2019 AND OCTOBER 2019

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
-19 000
-80 200
to
42 200
Total Unemployment
17 100
-19 300
to
53 500
Unemployment rate
0.1 pts
-0.1 pts
to
0.3 pts
Participation rate
-0.1 pts
-0.5 pts
to
0.3 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.