Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points to 4.9 per cent in April, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). There was also a decrease in the labour force participation rate of 0.1 percentage points in April to 65.2 per cent.

The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 15,500 to 11,501,000 in April. The increase in employment was driven by increased part-time employment, up 26,000 people to 3,438,200, and was offset by decrease in full-time employment, down 10,500 people to 8,062,800. The increase in employment was mainly driven by an increase in male part-time employment.

The number of people unemployed decreased by 28,800 people to 598,200 in April, the ABS reported.

The ABS monthly aggregate hours worked series showed an increase in April, up 6.6 million hours to 1,633.9 million hours.

There has been some interest recently in how changes in the Australian population impact on the estimates of employment from the Labour Force Survey. The responses collected from the sample of people in the survey are weighted to projections of the Australian population for the current quarter. These population projections are based on the most up-to-date information available, but are different to the official estimates of resident population that are calculated at a later date. In order to explain these issues, the ABS has produced a special feature article "Population Benchmarks and the Labour Force Survey" in this month's publication. 

More details are in the April 2012 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), as well as the upcoming April 2012 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) due for release next week on May 17. Both publications are available for free download (after release) from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au.