6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, October 2018 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/11/2018   
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OCTOBER KEY FIGURES

Sep 2018
Oct 2018
Sep 18 to Oct 18
Oct 17 to Oct 18

Trend
Employed persons ('000)
12 640.4
12 665.8
25.4
2.3
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
687.9
680.3
-7.6
-5.2
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.2
5.1
-0.1
pts
-0.4
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.6
65.6
0.0
pts
0.2
pts
Seasonally Adjusted
Employed persons ('000)
12 638.7
12 671.5
32.8
2.5
%
Unemployed persons ('000)
667.5
672.1
4.6
-4.9
%
Unemployment rate (%)
5.0
5.0
0.0
pts
-0.4
pts
Participation rate (%)
65.5
65.6
0.1
pts
0.3
pts

Employed Persons
Graph: Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate
Graph: Unemployment Rate



OCTOBER KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 25,400 to 12,665,800.
  • Unemployment decreased 7,600 to 680,300.
  • Unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 5.1%.
  • Participation rate remained steady at 65.6%.
  • Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 3.6 million hours (0.2%) to 1,761.8 million hours.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • Employment increased 32,800 to 12,671,500. Full-time employment increased 42,300 to 8,703,700 and part-time employment decreased 9,500 to 3,967,900.
  • Unemployment increased 4,600 to 672,100. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 5,200 to 445,400 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work increased 9,800 to 226,700.
  • Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.0%.
  • Participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 65.6%.
  • Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 6.1 million hours (0.3%) to 1,764.4 million hours.


LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION (MONTHLY CHANGE)
  • The monthly trend underemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 per cent. The monthly underutilisation rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 13.4 per cent.
  • The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 per cent. The monthly underutilisation rate remained steady at 13.3 per cent.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
November 2018 20 December 2018
December 2018 24 January 2019
January 2019 21 February 2019
February 2019 21 March 2019
March 2019 18 April 2019
April 2019 16 May 2019


CESSATION OF A PDF PRODUCT

The ABS is ceasing publication of a PDF as part of the release of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). This issue is the final release with a PDF.
All of the information that is contained in the PDF will continue to be available elsewhere in this release. Should you have any concerns regarding this transition, please contact us at client.services@abs.gov.au.


MONTHLY UNDEREMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES

Monthly trend and seasonally adjusted underemployment and underutilisation series are located in Time Series Spreadsheets 22 and 23 and PDF tables 20 and 21. Time Series Spreadsheets 24 and 25 contain new expanded analytical series of underutilisation.

For further information on underemployment and underutilisation measures, please refer to Chapter "Underutilised Labour" of Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6102.0.55.001).


NEW LABOUR FORCE SURVEY SAMPLE

As previously highlighted, the ABS is currently phasing in a new sample design. This began with the incoming rotation group in July 2018 and will continue through to February 2019. An information paper titled Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design, Jul 2018 (cat. no. 6269.0) was released on 30 July 2018 with detailed information on the new sample. As with each regular sample design, the impacts on the data are expected to be minimal and the ABS will monitor the quality of the estimates over the period the sample is phased in.


ROUNDING

Estimates of changes shown on the front cover and used in the commentary have been calculated using unrounded estimates, and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movement obtained from the rounded estimates. The graphs on the front cover also depict unrounded 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 2018 AND OCTOBER 2018

Monthly change
95% Confidence interval

Total Employment
32 800
-27 600
to
93 200
Total Unemployment
4 600
-30 600
to
39 800
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.