Australia's trend estimate of employment increased by 27,100 persons in August 2017,

with:

• the number of unemployed persons decreasing by 2,200 persons;

• the unemployment rate remaining steady at 5.6 per cent;

• the participation rate increasing by 0.1 percentage points to 65.2 per cent; and

• the employment to population ratio increasing by 0.1 percentage points to

61.5 per cent.

Over the past year, trend employment increased by 307,300 persons (or 2.6 per cent).

Over the same 12 month period the trend employment to population ratio, which is a

measure of how employed the population (aged 15 years and over) is, increased by

0.6 percentage points to 61.5 per cent, the highest it has been since February 2013