Media Release - Labour Force Figures, Australia, February 2010
Date published :
11
March
2010
The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace
Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
Deputy Prime Minister
11 March, 2010
Media release
Labour Force - February
Labour force figures released today by the Australian Bureau of
Statistics (ABS) show that the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 per
cent in February taking the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate
to 5.3 per cent. The January rate had been 5.3 per cent, but was
revised down to 5.2 per cent. The participation rate decreased 0.1
pt to 65.2 per cent. The market expectation had been for
unemployment to remain unchanged at 5.3 per cent. The expectation
had been for 15 000 jobs to be created in February. The figures
show that 400 jobs were created in February taking the number of
Australians in a job to just under 11 million people. Full time
employment rose by 11 400 while part time employment fell by 11
000. This along with a 2.4 per cent increase in hours worked
indicates that employers in February moved to increase hours of
their existing workers rather than employ new staff.
Click here to read the full media release on the
Ministers Media Centre online
Click here to visit the ABS website for the media
release and links to download the February release
Return to the News