Disclosed is a method for allocating and accessing downlink resources in the OFDMA communication system. In the resource allocation method, bursts having the same modulation and channel encoding level are arranged in a predetermined temporal order on a physical layer. Information on the allocated unit resources is included in a common control block and is transmitted to a subscriber station, and the subscriber station then detects a number of the allocated unit resources to thus check the range of bursts to be received by the subscriber station. Therefore, power consumption by the subscriber station is reduced and signaling overheads of the common control information and unneeded residual resources are decreased.