CHANGE TO STATUS IN EMPLOYMENT OUTPUT


CHANGE TO STATUS IN EMPLOYMENT OUTPUT

From the August 2015 release of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) onwards, the ABS will output data in accordance with the revised Status in Employment standard. The new output categories are:

• Employee;
• Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise with employees;
• Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise without employees;
• Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise with employees;
• Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise without employees;
• Contributing family workers.

The revised Status in Employment standard results from a review of the Labour Household Surveys. For further details see Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review, 2012 (cat. no. 6107.0).

The new standard combines elements of the previous 'Status in Employment' classification, and the old 'Employment Type' classification. This standard allows categories to be grouped as appropriate in order to perform a wide range of analyses. For example, the new standard allows aggregation suitable for both National Accounts or employment relationship contexts. The previous Status in Employment classification was based on the definition of employee in the National Accounts (used to derive compensation of employees) whereas Employment Type was more representative of the employment relationship for labour market analyses.

A comparison of the previous classifications and the revised Status in Employment standard is in Figure 1. The treatment of contributing family workers has not changed in the revised classification (i.e. they continue to be classified as people who work without pay in a business or farm operated by a relative).

FIGURE 1. REVISED STATUS IN EMPLOYMENT
	Previous status in employment	Previous employment type
Employee	Employee	Employee
Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise with employees	Employee	Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise
Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise without employees	Employee	Owner-manager of incorporated enterprise
Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise with employees	Employer	Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise
Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise without employees	Own-account worker	Owner-manager of unincorporated enterprise

Further, from July 2014, employed people who identify as being paid by commission only (without a retainer), and identify as not working in their own business are classified as employees, whereas previously they were classified as owner-managers. This change has meant that it is no longer possible to classify these employed people in accordance within the previous outputs (as they are now considered employees, they are no longer asked about the characteristics of the business, such as whether it is incorporated). In July 2014, approximately 10,000 people (or 0.1% of those employed) were reclassified in this way. From the July 2015 release onwards, the entire time series is revised to the new standard.

For further information on the Status in Employment standard, please refer to Standards for Labour Force Statistics (cat. no. 1288.0); or contact Labour Market Statistics on (02) 6252 7206 or email <labour.statistics@abs.gov.au>.