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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 Job Search Experience Survey is the primary ABS data source about the experiences of unemployed 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 on two mutually exclusive groups in the labour force aged 15 years and over as at July:

• unemployed persons
• employed persons who started their current job 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 2011.

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 LFS sample size in July 2010 was approximately 32% higher than the sample size in July 2009. This was due to the re-instatement of the sample that had been cut from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and supplementary surveys in July 2008. Detailed information about the sample reduction and re-instatement is provided in Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design, Nov 2007 (third edition) (cat. no. 6269.0). The re-instated sample will still be representative, with selections made across all parts of Australia.

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).

Key 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 Appendix 2 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 2 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.