CHANGES IN THIS AND UPCOMING LABOUR FORCE ISSUES


CHANGES TO LABOUR FORCE OUTPUTS

As advised in previous issues, changes to standard Labour Force products will be implemented from the July 2014 to May 2015 issues of this and related releases. These changes have arisen from the ABS review in 2010-11 of content included in the labour household survey program, as described in the Information Paper: Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review, 2012 (cat. no. 6107.0).
There have not been any changes to the format of the pdf, spreadsheets or data cube in this issue. However, changes have already been made to the related detailed monthly and quarterly releases and further changes to all releases are planned.


Changes already made

The following changes have already been made to the detailed monthly and quarterly Labour Force releases:

• Products produced for the final time with the June 2014 issue of the detailed monthly Labour Force release (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) and not available with future issues are:
  • Spreadsheet tables 15a and 15b;
  • Data cube EM2 - this will be replaced by two separate data cubes from the January 2015 issue;
  • Data cube UM1;
  • Data cube RM2.
• Products produced for the final time with the May 2014 issue of the detailed quarterly Labour Force release (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) and not available with future issues are:
  • Data cube EO1;
  • Data cube UQ2 - this will be replaced by two separate data cubes from the November 2014 issue;
  • Data cube UQ3 - this will be replaced by two separate data cubes from the November 2014 issue.

These products have been ceased due to:

• duration of unemployment since last full-time job no longer being collected as this item was replaced by duration of unemployment in 2001 and is therefore obsolete (Spreadsheet tables 15a and 15b; Data cubes UM1 and RM2), and
• expanded scope and changed response categories for employed persons who worked fewer than their usual number of hours during the reference week (Data cube EM2 which will be replaced, and Data cube EO1 for which the information will largely be available in other products).

Further information on changes to outputs is available in the Information Paper: Forthcoming Changes to Labour Force Statistics (cat. no. 6292.0), released on 26 June 2014.

The ABS changed the measurement of the duration of a person’ period of unemployment from July 2014. This change only applies to those persons already identified as unemployed and does not impact on the number of unemployed persons. Previously, the duration of a person’ period of unemployment could only end with a spell of work of two weeks or more. This was inconsistent with the definition of employment which recognises any work of one hour or more during the reference week. From July 2014 the ABS will ask when a person last worked (in paid employment of one hour or more). This is both consistent with the definitions of employment and unemployment as well as international standards. The data impacted by this change is only released in the detailed monthly Labour Force release (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001).

Also in July 2014 the ABS refined some of the questions used to determine if a person is actively looking for work. From time to time the ABS updates these questions to ensure alignment with international standards and to reflect the changing way that people look for work in Australia. For details of the changes made in July see 6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Jul 2014. There is no evidence that these changes had a significant impact on the July 2014 estimates of unemployed persons.


Upcoming changes

The ABS planned to implement changes to the pdf, spreadsheets and data cubes in this publication and in the detailed monthly Labour Force release (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) from the September issues, with blank templates of the new spreadsheets and datacubes to be released with the August issues. To allow further time for validation, the changes to these releases will be delayed one month and implemented with the October issues of this publication and the detailed monthly Labour Force release. The changes to the detailed quarterly Labour Force release will be implemented with the November issue as planned. To give clients additional time to prepare for these changes, the blank templates of the new spreadsheets and datacubes will be released on 25 September as a supplement to this publication, and the detailed monthly and quarterly Labour Force releases. At the same time the Information Paper: Forthcoming Changes to Labour Force Statistics (cat. no. 6292.0) will be updated to clarify changes being made.

As a result of delaying the introduction of the new monthly outputs from the September to October issues, quarterly rebenchmarking (which revises estimates to reflect the latest Estimated Resident Population) planned for the October 2014 issue will be deferred. The timing of the quarterly rebenchmarking will be advised on 25 September when the dummy products and updated information paper are released.