The adjoint variable method can reduce computation time and save computer resources because it can selectively provide the sensitivity information for the positions that designers wish to measure. However, the adjoint variable method commonly employs exact analytical differentiation with respect to the design variables. It can be cumbersome to precisely differentiate every given type of finite element. This trouble can be overcome only if the numerical differentiation scheme can replace this exact manner of differentiation. But, the numerical differentiation scheme causes of severe inaccuracy due to the perturbation size dilemma. For assuring the accurate sensitivity without any dependency of perturbation size, this paper employs a complex variable that has been mainly used for computational fluid dynamics problems. The adjoint variable method combined with complex variables is applied to obtain the shape and size sensitivity for structural optimization. Numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed method can predict stable sensitivity results and that its accuracy is remarkably superior to traditional sensitivity evaluation methods.