2975.0.55.014 - Census Working Paper 96/4 - Fact Sheet 14 - Journey to Work, 1996  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/09/1999   
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1996 CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING
FACT SHEET 14
JOURNEY TO WORK


Users of 1996 Census Journey to Work data (DZSP/DZNP) should be aware of the following factors affecting the 1996 Census data.


JOURNEY TO WORK STUDY AREAS

Each state or territory in Australia has a defined Journey To Work (JTW) Study Area. Two study areas cross state borders; the Queensland Study Area includes the Tweed Shire of NSW; and the ACT Study Area includes Queanbeyan and surrounding areas.

1996 JTW data is available for employed persons enumerated and working in the same JTW study areas. Persons enumerated in a study area who work outside that study area, including if they work in a study area for another state or territory, are coded to "worked outside study area".

Data for areas around the border of each study area will be affected by the following factors:

  • people enumerated outside the study area who work inside the study area are not in the data; and
  • people enumerated inside the study area who work outside the study area are all coded to "worked outside study area".


DIFFERENT REFERENCE PERIODS FOR USUAL RESIDENCE, METHOD OF TRAVEL TO WORK, AND EMPLOYER ADDRESS QUESTIONS

The data variables most commonly cross tabulated with DZSP/DZNP (Employer address) are SLAUCP (SLA of Usual Residence) and TPTP (Method of Travel to Work), however these questions have different reference periods on the census form.

SLA of Usual residence and Method of Travel to Work both refer to census night:
    Q.7 What is the person's usual address? (SLAUCP) ; and
    Q.38 How did the person get to work on Tuesday, 6th August 1996? (TPTP).

Employer Address refers to the main job held last week, ie. the week before census night:
    Q.34 For the main job held last week, what was the employer's workplace address?

The Employer Address question refers to last week rather than census night for comparability of census labour force data with other ABS labour force data.

The different reference periods for these questions produce outliers in the data who are:
  • people who changed their place of work between last week and census night,
  • people who changed their place of usual residence between last week and census night,
  • people who were not at their usual residence on census night.

In addition, some people provide the head office address of their employer rather than the address of the actual location where they worked.


COMPARABILITY BETWEEN 1991 AND 1996

The population

In the 1991 Census, JTW data was coded for employed persons enumerated at his or her usual place of residence in the JTW study areas. In comparison, the 1996 population covered employed persons enumerated in the JTW study areas.

Persons with no fixed workplace address

When comparing the 1991 and 1996 JTW data, users should be aware of changes to the instruction on the census form for persons with no fixed workplace address.
    1991 Census:

    For the main job last week, what was the employer's workplace address?
    (instruction:) For persons with no fixed place of work, provide address of depot or office


    1996 Census:

    For the main job last week, what was the employer's workplace address?
    (instruction:) For persons with no fixed place of work (eg. taxi driver, pilot, courier) write 'no fixed address'

Only persons who stated "no fixed address", or a similar term, such as driving around city, door to door etc. were coded to no fixed address for 1996.

This reduces the number of outliers created as a result of people responding with their employer's depot or office when they in fact do not work in a specific location, eg. taxi driver, pilot, courier . As a result, there is an increase in the number of persons coded to no fixed place of work in the 1996 data.


SLAs WHERE NOT ALL CDs ARE INCLUDED IN THE STUDY AREA

There are two SLAs that are not wholly contained within their relevant Study areas. These part SLAs are intentional, not errors. The main design requirement for DZNs is to aggregate to SLAs, however part SLAs are accepted providing the DZN boundaries do not cross SLA boundaries.

The SLAs are:

In the ACT Study Area:

12050 Cooma-Monaro (A) Of the 22 CDs in this SLA, only 3 are included in the ACT Study Area. The 3 CDs cover the area between the townships of Michaelago and Bredbo, forming a contiguous area with the ACT part of the ACT Study area. This is comparable with the 1991 Study Area; the purpose is to collect data from the people in these townships and on small acreages in that area who are coming into Canberra/Queanbyan to work.

In the Qld Study Area:

34850 Mareeba (S) Of the 41 CDs in this SLA only 2 are included in the Qld Study area. The 2 CDs cover the town of Kuranda at the top of the range overlooking Cairns. The area is included to collect data on people living in Kuranda who travel down to Cairns to work. This is an extension to the 1991 Study area.

Users need to be aware that if they're looking at SLA of enumeration to DZN, then the figures for the SLAs of Cooma-Monaro and Mareeba will not reflect all persons coming from those SLAs, only from the specific CDs included in the Study area.