APRIL KEY FIGURES Mar 19 Apr 19 Mar 19 to Apr 19 Apr 18 to Apr 19 Trend Employed persons ('000) 12,794.1 12,814.8 20.7 2.5% Unemployed persons ('000) 683.5 689.6 6.1 -4.9% Unemployment rate (%) 5.1 5.1 0.0 pts -0.4 pts Underemployment rate (%) 8.3 8.3 0.0 pts -0.2 pts Participation rate (%) 65.7 65.7 0.0 pts 0.2 pts Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000) 1,780.5 1,786.0 5.6 2.8%

Seasonally Adjusted Employed persons ('000) 12,794.5 12,822.9 28.4 2.6% Unemployed persons ('000) 682.6 703.9 21.2 -3.7% Unemployment rate (%) 5.1 5.2 0.1 pts -0.3 pts Underemployment rate (%) 8.2 8.5 0.3 pts 0 pts Participation rate (%) 65.7 65.8 0.2 pts 0.3 pts Monthly hours worked in all jobs ('000 000) 1,786.0 1,788.5 2.5 1.9%

EMPLOYED PERSONS





UNEMPLOYMENT RATE













APRIL KEY POINTS





TREND ESTIMATES Employment increased 20,700 to 12,814,800 persons. Full-time employment increased 14,700 to 8,793,900 persons and part-time employment increased 6,100 to 4,020,900 persons. Unemployment increased 6,100 to 689,600 persons. Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.1%. Participation rate remained steady at 65.7%. Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 5.6 million hours to 1,786.0 million hours. SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES Employment increased 28,400 to 12,822,900 persons. Full-time employment decreased 6,300 to 8,792,700 persons and part-time employment increased 34,700 to 4,030,200 persons. Unemployment increased 21,200 to 703,900 persons. Unemployment rate increased 0.1 pts to 5.2%. Participation rate increased 0.2 pts to 65.8%. Monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 2.5 million hours to 1,788.5 million hours. LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION The monthly trend underemployment rate remained steady at 8.3%. The monthly underutilisation rate increased 0.1 pts to 13.4%. The monthly seasonally adjusted underemployment rate increased 0.3 pts to 8.5%. The monthly underutilisation rate increased 0.4 pts to 13.7%.



NOTES



FORTHCOMING ISSUES

Issue Release Date May 2019 13 June 2019 June 2019 18 July 2019 July 2019 15 August 2019 August 2019 19 September 2019 September 2019 17 October 2019 October 2019 14 November 2019 TRANSITION TO 2016 ASGS



The completion of the move to the Address Register in February 2019 completes the transition of the sample to the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The changes between the 2011 ASGS and 2016 ASGS at the SA4 level are minor, with one key exception. The 2016 ASGS supports the ‘WA outback’ being split into ‘WA outback – North’ and ‘WA outback – South’.



The ABS is still assessing whether Labour Force data can support estimates for these two regions. In the meantime, these regions will continue to be published as ‘WA Outback (North and South)’. The ABS has not revised Labour Force data for any of the changes at the SA4 level.





UPDATE ON THE RELEASE OF 6224.0.55.001



The ABS was due to release the



During the quality assurance of the 2018 data and the recent time series, the ABS identified that there was a greater level of variability in the weighted estimates for some of the less common family and household types (particularly multi-family households), and therefore opted to delay the release to 2019.



The ABS has identified an issue with some family coding, which is affecting a range of key family estimates - particularly changes between June 2015 and June 2017. The issue is also impacting, to a lesser extent, on some variables in the four "relationship in household" products in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed – Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) – including pivot tables FM1-FM4, as well as the first time series spreadsheet in that release, which contains estimates by social marital status.



The 2019 publication will contain data for both June 2018 and June 2019. Revised data for the 2015-2017 period, will be released with a complete time series with the release of June 2020 data. The ABS apologises for this delay. Should you have any question regarding these data, please contact us at





ROUNDING



Estimates of changes 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. Graphs 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 MARCH 2019 AND APRIL 2019 Monthly change 95% Confidence interval Total Employment 28 400 -32 600 to 89 400 Total Unemployment 21 200 -16 400 to 58 800 Unemployment rate 0.1 pts -0.1 pts to 0.3 pts Participation rate 0.2 pts -0.2 pts to 0.6 pts



INQUIRIES



For further information about these and related statistics, email or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.









The completion of the move to the Address Register in February 2019 completes the transition of the sample to the 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The changes between the 2011 ASGS and 2016 ASGS at the SA4 level are minor, with one key exception. The 2016 ASGS supports the ‘WA outback’ being split into ‘WA outback – North’ and ‘WA outback – South’.The ABS is still assessing whether Labour Force data can support estimates for these two regions. In the meantime, these regions will continue to be published as ‘WA Outback (North and South)’. The ABS has not revised Labour Force data for any of the changes at the SA4 level.The ABS was due to release the Labour Force, Australia: Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families (cat. no. 6224.0.55.001) on 27 September 2018, with annual data up to June 2018.During the quality assurance of the 2018 data and the recent time series, the ABS identified that there was a greater level of variability in the weighted estimates for some of the less common family and household types (particularly multi-family households), and therefore opted to delay the release to 2019.The ABS has identified an issue with some family coding, which is affecting a range of key family estimates - particularly changes between June 2015 and June 2017. The issue is also impacting, to a lesser extent, on some variables in the four "relationship in household" products in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed – Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) – including pivot tables FM1-FM4, as well as the first time series spreadsheet in that release, which contains estimates by social marital status.The 2019 publication will contain data for both June 2018 and June 2019. Revised data for the 2015-2017 period, will be released with a complete time series with the release of June 2020 data. The ABS apologises for this delay. Should you have any question regarding these data, please contact us at labour.statistics@abs.gov.au Estimates of changes 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. Graphs also depict unrounded estimates.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.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.