Australia’s estimated seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2015 was 6.2 per cent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points. In trend terms, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.2 per cent in August 2015, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.
The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate decreased 0.1 percentage points to 65.0 per cent in the August 2015 estimate.
The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 17,400 to 11,775,800 in August 2015 (seasonally adjusted). The increase in employment was driven by increases in male full-time employment, and female full-time and part-time employment, with the largest increase seen in full-time employment for males (up 10,100).
The ABS seasonally adjusted monthly hours worked in all jobs series decreased in August 2015, down 0.6 million hours to 1,623.8 million hours.
The seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed decreased by 14,400 to 781,100 in August 2015, the ABS reported.
The seasonally adjusted underemployment rate remained steady at 8.4 per cent in August 2015, from a revised May 2015 estimate. Combined with the unemployment rate, the latest seasonally adjusted estimate of total labour force underutilisation was unchanged at 14.3 per cent in August 2015, from a revised May 2015 estimate.
