6291.0.55.001 - Labour Force, Selected Summary Tables, Australia, Quarterly, Aug 2005  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/09/2005   
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NOTE: There have been changes to the processes used to code industry and occupation in the Labour Force Survey. More details are available on this site.

Data in datacube uq2_aug94.srd have not been revised to reflect definitional changes in the Labour Force Survey questionnaire introduced in April 2001. Estimates in datacube uq2_may01.srd (collected from May 2001 onwards) are not strictly comparable with those in datacube uq2_aug94.srd (collected up to March 2001).

The three major changes to the uq2 datacube introduced in April 2001 are:

  1. a different definition of unemployed;
  2. data up to March 2001 was collected monthly, while from May 2001 industry is only collected every three months (Feb, May, Aug, Nov); and
  3. from May 2001 onwards industry refers to last job, while prior to that industry referred to last full-time job.

For further information, see Information Paper: Implementing the Redesigned Labour Force Survey Questionnaire (cat. no. 6295.0).

System Requirements
These files are in SuperTABLE format. To use them, you need SuperTABLE on your PC. You can download it free from Space-Time Research at http://www.str.com.au/download/supertable_download.htm (then run the file to install it), or contact your organisation's Information Technology support area. For more information, please see SuperTABLE Help.

File Contents
uq2_aug94.srd contains data from August 1994 to March 2001
uq2_may01.srd contains data for every 3 months (Feb, May, Aug, Nov) from May 2001.
These files cannot be combined due to a change in frequency of collection and definitions.

Classifications
SexMale, Female
Geographical AreaState
IndustryIndustry Division (1-digit)
Refers to last job from May 2001.
Refers to last full-time job only up to March 2001.
MonthAll months from August 1994 to March 2001. Every 3 months (Feb, May, Aug, Nov) from May 2001.
Labour Force StatusUnemployed looking for full-time work, Unemployed looking for part-time work, Aggregate weeks unemployed (aggregate weeks unemployed since last full-time job up to March 2001).

Standard Errors
Estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are based on information collected from people in a sample of dwellings, rather than the entire population. Hence the estimates produced may differ from those that would have been produced if the entire population had been included in the survey. The most common measure of the likely difference (or 'sampling error') is the standard error (SE).New models for calculating standard errors for these estimates were introduced in August 2005 and apply to estimates from the LFS from November 2002 onwards.

The estimates in this data file are from a sample survey and some estimates may be subject to sampling variability too high for most practical purposes. To annotate an item with a relative standard error of 25% or more, in SuperTABLE, right click in the centre of the table, select annotate cells - standard annotations, and select 'Annotate RSE cut-off values'. See the SuperTABLE reference manual for more information (available from Space-Time Research - see link above).

Additional information on how standard errors for LFS estimates are produced is available in the paper Labour Force Survey Standard Errors, 2005 (cat. no. 6298.0). The attached document (free download) also provides the tables to allow the annotation of historical estimates with a standard error of 25% or more.

StandardErrors.xls

Explanatory Information
Explanatory Information about the Labour Force Survey and associated products, including a glossary of terms used and links to related publications, can be found at Explanatory Notes