LABOUR HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS CONTENT REVIEW AND THE LFS


INTRODUCTION

An information paper Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review (cat. no. 6107.0) was released today.

While the information paper outlines the intended changes to the entire ABS labour household surveys program (of which the LFS is just one part) and provides more information about the review, the developments that are planned for the LFS are summarised below.

• More frequent and improved measures of underemployment and labour underutilisation
• Quarterly volume measures of labour underutilisation
• Educational attainment available monthly
• Casual work available quarterly
• Public and private sector information available quarterly
• Better coherence of employment classifications in LFS output
• Introduction of a quarterly LFS retrenchment rate
• Expanded duration of employment with current employer/business
• Refinements to the collection of full-time and part-time jobs search
• Number of jobs in the economy
• Improved 'gross flows' data
• Further breakdowns of Aggregate monthly hours worked
• Release of a Longitudinal Labour Force Survey Confidentialised Unit Record File
• Monthly industry estimates

These developments will result in more information being available from the LFS and a richer array of data with key measures released more frequently. They will also improve the conceptual robustness and relevance of the survey and enable critical labour market linkages that are not currently possible.

The exact details may change subject to testing and an assessment of statistical impact, to ensure that the changes will not have an adverse impact on respondent burden or on LFS estimates.


IMPLEMENTATION

Improvements to the LFS from the content review are expected to be implemented into the collection from July 2013. Key milestones in the implementation are outlined below. Some improvements that are not dependent on changes to the survey questionnaire, such as the Longitudinal LFS CURF, may be implemented outside of the time-frames below.

Mid-to-late 2012 Development and testing

July 2013 Implementation of new monthly LFS content

Aug 2013 Implementation of new quarterly LFS content

Late 2013 Release of results of new monthly content

Late 2013 Release of results of new quarterly content


DISSEMINATION

It is recognised that dissemination of the expanded content in the LFS is of considerable interest to users. As a result, a comprehensive dissemination strategy will be developed, in consultation with key users. This will consider the number and format of products, and will include microdata dissemination options.


FURTHER INFORMATION

For more details, refer to the information paper Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review (cat. no. 6107.0), released today and available for free from the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au.

For further information, please contact the Labour Market Statistics Section on (02) 6252 7206 or email <labour.statistics@abs.gov.au>.