WHAT'S NEW IN LABOUR FORCE
REBENCHMARKING OF QUARTERLY LABOUR FORCE ESTIMATES
Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates released in the April 2013 issue of this publication were revised, for the period January 2011 to March 2013, to reflect the latest available information on population benchmarks. Quarterly LFS industry and occupation estimates revised for the latest available population benchmarks will be released on 20 June 2013 in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, May 2013 (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003). The revisions will be for the period February 2011 to February 2013.
To ensure coherence between ABS main economic indicators, and to ensure these indicators reflect the most up-to-date information, the rebenchmarked quarterly LFS estimates were used in compiling the quarterly Industry hours worked series in the March quarter 2013 Australian National Accounts. Quarterly Industry data relating to indexes of hours worked and unit labour costs were released in the March quarter 2013 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0) on 5 June 2013. For more information on these estimates, or to obtain the estimates used in the National Accounts, see the National Accounts publication or contact National Accounts on (02) 6252 6711 or national.accounts@abs.gov.au.
ONLINE COLLECTION OF THE LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
In December 2012, the ABS commenced a trial of online self-completion of labour force data from households. This trial was conducted from December 2012 to April 2013 on one rotation group (i.e. one-eighth of the survey sample) and those respondents were offered the option of self-completing the survey online in place of a face-to-face or telephone interview.
From May 2013, the ABS is gradually expanding the offer of online self-completion to all households selected in the Labour Force Survey, commencing with 50% of the two new incoming rotation groups in May 2013 in addition to the trial rotation group. The option of completing via online self-completion was offered to 25% of the total sample in May 2013. The take up rate was 4% of the total survey sample in May - 6% of the two new incoming rotation groups (of which 50% were offered online collection) and 18% of the trial rotation group.
For further information, refer to the feature article Transition to Online Collection of the Labour Force Survey in the April 2013 issue of this publication.
NEW LABOUR MARKET MICRODATA AVAILABLE
The ABS recently released several microdata products from the Labour Statistics Program. The 2010-11 Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation and Retirement and Retirement Intentions topics were released on TableBuilder on 28 May 2013. TableBuilder is an online tool for creating tables and graphs from ABS survey data. The data in this product can be used to obtain a better understanding of the factors that influence people to participate (more) in the labour force and the hours they work, and obtain a better understanding of retirement trends and issues facing older Australians. For more information see
Microdata: Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation, Retirement and Retirement Intentions, July 2010 to June 2011 (cat. no. 6238.0.55.001) on the ABS website.
The May 2012 Employee Earnings and Hours confidentialised unit record file was released on 4 June 2013 and is designed to provide statistics on the composition and distribution of earnings and hours of employees and whether their pay is set by award, collective agreement or individual arrangement. For more information see Microdata: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2012 (cat. no. 6306.0.55.001) on the ABS website.
In addition to these new releases, the ABS has a number of microdata products from the Labour Force Survey and Supplementary Surveys available.
The 2008-10 Longitudinal Labour Force Survey confidentialised unit record file was released in December 2012 and combines the results of 56 household surveys, arranged into a structure that allows for labour related data on people, families and households to be analysed over multiple time points. Over the three year period, information has been collected from over 150,000 households, resulting in over 1.8 million records. This data source is useful in understanding the labour market over multiple time points. For more information see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, 2008-2010 (cat. no. 6602.0).
The ABS also released in December 2012, the February 2012 Labour Force Survey and Labour Mobility confidentialised unit record file. It presents microdata from the February Labour Mobility Supplementary Survey and the February Labour Force Survey. It provides details of employment as at February 2012, as well as labour mobility over a twelve month period ending February 2012. For more information see Microdata: Labour Force Survey and Labour Mobility, Australia, February 2012 (cat. no. 6202.0.30.004).
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