WHAT'S NEW IN LABOUR FORCE
ELECTRONIC COLLECTION OF LABOUR FORCE DATA
The ABS has been undertaking a trial of on-line electronic data collection of labour force data from households since December 2012. The trial is being conducted on one rotation group (i.e. one-eighth of the survey sample) and respondents were offered the option of completing the survey on-line instead of a face-to-face or telephone interview. The uptake in January was 23.2% of the rotation group (2.9% of the total labour force survey sample).
The trial will continue for a number of months prior to a decision on rolling out progressively to the full Labour Force Survey sample.
IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS ON JANUARY LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
The floods in Queensland and the fires in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania resulted in some minor sample loss for January 2013 but there were no observable impacts on the data.
SEASONAL ADJUSTMENT OF AGGREGATE HOURS WORKED
Interviews for the January 2013 Labour Force Survey commenced Sunday January 6, that is, earlier than when interviews were generally conducted for the month of January. The reference period for the Labour Force Survey is the week prior to interview. Seasonal adjustment normally removes systematic calendar effects, for example the effects of holidays in the survey period. However, as the reference period for January 2013 survey included both New Year's Eve and New Year's day for the first time in the Labour Force Survey, the seasonal impacts of these holiday effects could not be estimated for the series on aggregate hours worked. The seasonal factors applied to these series were adjusted to bring the series in line with the forecast trend. There were no observable impacts on the other Labour Force series.
Quality Declaration 
Print Page
Print All