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CURRENT ISSUES

ANNUAL INTEGRATED COLLECTION (AIC)

The AIC integrates the suite of ABS accounting based collections with an annual reference period into a single system. One of the collection vehicles for the AIC is the Economic Activity Survey and it has undergone significant changes for 2006–07, including the new ANZSIC 2006 edition and changes to the collection scope, design and estimation methodology. During this transition period, the ABS has been selective with the range of data produced and cleared for release. As a consequence, business counts, employment data and ANZSIC class level estimates are not included in 8155.0 Australian Industry, 2006-07.

ANZSIC subdivision level data are also not included in the detailed data spreadsheets, although some data is available for selected subdivisions on request. It is anticipated that the reductions in data outputs are only temporary, and that the full set of data will be available for 2007–08 as the new design and methods are firmly established.

The collection design for 2006–07 now utilises ATO Business Activity Statement data as auxiliary information to assist in the stratification of the business population and in the estimation methodology, which has been changed to generalised regression estimation. As this collection is in a transition phase, the focus has been to concentrate on a selected subset of the data items traditionally released in this publication. As the new processes and systems are firmly established, the full range of data items, including employment and business counts, are expected to be reinstated in future releases.

Experimental estimates at the ANZSIC class level have also traditionally been released in past editions of this publication. With the move away from ATO Business Income Tax data to the more timely ATO Business Activity Statement data for collection design and estimation, the ABS is still developing and validating its new experimental ANZSIC class level series. It is also expected that ANZSIC class level estimates will be reinstated in future releases.

The associated data spreadsheets have in the past contained time series at the ANZSIC subdivision level. It was intended to release similar detail for 2006–07, but bridging the effects of the new ANZSIC, collection design and estimation methodology to the earlier data series has been difficult, and the data is not considered reliable enough to publish at this time. There may be cases where some ANZSIC subdivision data are available for release, but only if requested by users. Such requests should be made to the contact officer listed on the front page of 8155.0 Australian Industry, 2006-07 and will be considered on a case by case basis.