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QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

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

RELEVANCE

The Forms of Employment (FOES) collects a range of information on some of the key factors relating to the nature of employment arrangements in the Australian labour market. The survey also presents information about different types of employment which can be cross-classified by characteristics such as hours worked, industry and occupation and demographic characteristics.


TIMELINESS

The Forms of Employment (FOES) survey is conducted annually during November as a supplement to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS). Results from this survey are released approximately six months after the completion of enumeration (ie. during May) in the publication Forms of Employment, Australia(cat. no. 6359.0).


ACCURACY

Estimates from the Forms of Employment Survey are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors. Relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of the size of the sampling error affecting an estimate, i.e. the error introduced by basing estimates on a sample of the population rather than the full population. Non-sampling errors are inaccuracies that occur because of imperfections in reporting by respondents and interviewers, and errors made in coding and processing data.

The Forms of Employment Survey was designed primarily to provide estimates at the Australia level. Broad estimates are available for state and capital city/balance, though users should exercise caution when using estimates at this level because of the presence of high sampling errors. RSEs for all estimates in the publication are available in the Technical Note.


COHERENCE

While the LFS provides the official estimate of persons in the labour force, the FOES provides further information on the characteristics of these people. Summary information is also collected in the Labour Force Survey on a quarterly basis.

The ABS has been conducting the FOES regularly since 1998. Key changes to the FOES include:

• revision of population benchmarks;
• changes in the scope of the survey;
• the redevelopment of the 2008 FOES to better capture information of independent contractors, other business operators and employees with/without paid leave entitlements; and
• the inclusion of data on people who found their job through a labour hire firm or employment agency in 2011 and 2008.

As foreshadowed in the information paper, Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review, 2012 (cat. no. 6107.0), this is the final issue of Forms of Employment, Australia publication.

This publication will be replaced by a new publication titled Characteristics of Employment, Australia (cat. no. 6333.0). The first release of 6333.0 will be in respect of August 2014 and will be released in mid 2015.

INTERPRETABILITY

The Forms of Employment publication contains tables and a Summary of Findings to aid interpretation of the results of the survey. Detailed Explanatory Notes, 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).
· Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0).
· Year Book Australia (cat. no. 1301.0) - the 'Labour' chapter includes a feature article on Forms of Employment
· Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6102.0.55.001) - Chapter 21.3 Forms of Employment.