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QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the ABS, including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

The Job Search Experience Survey is the primary ABS data source about the experiences of unemployed people and long-term employed people in seeking work, and information on employed people who started their current job in the previous 12 months. It provides a comprehensive view of the nature and extent of unemployment, the problems unemployed people face in finding a job, and the different steps taken to find a job. For more information on the content and design of the survey refer to Quality Declaration - Relevance.

The Job Search Experience Survey collects information, as at July, on three labour force groups aged 15 years and over:

• unemployed persons;
• employed persons who started their current job in the previous 12 months; and
• persons employed for more than a year in their current job who looked for work in the previous 12 months.

The Job Search Experience Survey is conducted annually as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey. The main product from the survey is the publication, Job Search Experience, Australia (cat. no. 6222.0).

The publication is released approximately six months after the completion of enumeration in July. The Job Search Experience Survey is expected to be conducted again in July 2012.

Estimates from the Job Search Experience Survey, including those presented in the publication, are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors.

The Job Search Experience Survey was designed primarily to provide estimates at the Australia level. Broad estimates are available for state/territory and capital city/balance, though users should exercise caution when using estimates at this level because of the presence of high sampling errors. Relative standard errors for all estimates in the publication are available in table T2 in the Technical Note of the publication.

The conceptual framework presented in the publication is described in more detail in Chapters 3 and 6 of Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6102.0.55.001). The statistics from this survey are comparable with other labour statistics produced by the ABS.

The ABS has been conducting the Job Search Experience Survey annually in its current form since 2002. Results of previous surveys on the job search experience of unemployed people conducted in July 1984, July 1985, June 1986, July 1988, July 1990, June 1991 and annually from July 1992 to July 2001 were published in various issues of Job Search Experience of Unemployed Persons, Australia (cat. no. 6222.0). Information on people who had started work for an employer for wages or salary during the 12 months up to the end of the reference week was collected in June 1986, and two-yearly from July 1990 to July 2000 and were published in Successful and Unsuccessful Job Search Experience, Australia (cat. no. 6245.0).

The July 2011 Job Search Experience Survey (JSE) was redeveloped to capture more information on a person's experience in looking for work. The redesign resulted in a break in series for all existing population groups as well as the introduction of two new population groups.

Other changes made to the collection methodology of the Job Search Experience Survey since 2002 are reflected in relevant publications. For more information on changes to the survey see Chapter 21.4 of Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6102.0.55.001).

Job Search Experience, Australia (cat. no. 6222.0) contains tables with footnoted data and a Summary of Findings to aid interpretation of the results of the survey. Detailed Explanatory Notes, a Technical Note and a Glossary are also included providing information on the terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics.

Further commentary is often available through articles and data published in other ABS products, including:

• Australian Labour Market Statistics (cat. no. 6105.0) - refer to the article archive for past articles.
• Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0) - refer to the article archive.
• Year Book, Australia (cat. no. 1301.0) - refer to the 'Labour' chapter.

Job Search Experience, Australia (cat. no. 6222.0) is released electronically via the ABS website as a PDF publication. Additional data may be available on request (subject to data quality). For a list of data items available see Appendix 3 of the publication. Note that detailed data can be subject to high relative standard errors, and in some cases, may result in data being confidentialised.

For further information about these or related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Centre on 1300 135 070 or the Labour Market Statistics Section in Canberra on (02) 6252 6552.