The Australian unemployment rate stood unchanged at 5.0 per cent seasonally adjusted in February, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. 



The ABS reported the number of people employed decreased by 10,100 to 11.413 million in February. The decrease in employment was driven by a decrease in part-time employment, down 57,700 people to 3.344 million that was partially offset by an increase in full-time employment, up 47,600 people to 8.068 million.


The number of people unemployed decreased by 500 people to 604,800 in February.


The ABS monthly aggregate hours worked series showed an increase in February, up 17.9 million hours to 1,602.0 million hours.


The ABS reported labour force participation in February of 65.7 per cent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from January.


No significant operational difficulties were experienced in conducting the Labour Force Survey in February 2011. A small number of households from the sample were not able to be enumerated due to either flood or cyclone damage to the dwelling, or road closures preventing access to the dwelling. The small amount of sample loss has not had a statistically significant impact on the estimates and, unlike January, there was no need to apply corrections to any of the trend estimates this month.


More details are available in the February 2011 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).