Labour Force Statistics – changes for the latest reporting period…

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the latest ‘Labour force Statistics.’   Labour Force statistics are compiled from the Labour Force Survey which is conducted each month throughout Australia as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) household survey program.

News reports indicate that the [Australian] economy impacted upon the available jobs to workers by reducing positions available by 26,000 full-time jobs.   It is estimated that more than 80,000 full-time jobs have been lost over the last six (6) months.   Some of the large organisations affected by the global recession (and therefore reduce available jobs) include Qantas and Rio Tinto.

These May 2009 statistics show the following trends:-

- Unemployment Rates is 5.7%

    (this is an increase of 0.1% over the April figures and an increase of 1.6% for the same period last year.)

- Employed persons is 10,788,100

- Unemployed persons is 654,900

- Participation Rate is 65.5%

    (the participation rate is defined as the number of persons in the labour force as a percentage of the working age population)

 
Among the states, NSW had the highest jobless rate, with the figure jumping to 6.4 per cent in May from 6.1 per cent in April. A year earlier, about 4.7 per cent of the state's workforce was out of work.

Further reports state that skilled job vacancies fell [again] by 3.7% from May to June... The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) skilled vacancies index for June was 61.5% lower than it was in June 2008.

THE Federal Government is sticking by Treasury's forecast that one million Australians will be unemployed by mid-2011, despite rosier figures than predicted in the May budget.

Nonetheless the outlook does look positive… and business confidence does appear to be on the rise.