Activities

The description of particular tasks that were being done during a person's day.

Care

Care is provided by any person in Australia aged 15 years or over who:

• had their own child(ren) aged under 15 years living with them
• looked after their own child(ren) aged under 15 years who do not usually live with them
• looked after a child other than their own child aged under 15 years of age
• helped or supported a frail aged person in day-to-day activities
• helped or supported any person aged 15 years or over with a short or long term sickness, injury or condition with day-to-day activities.

For the purpose of Tables 1 (under 'child care activities' activity group) 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the Work and Family Balance data cube, the care was not done as part of paid or voluntary work. For the purpose of Table 1 (under 'voluntary work and care' activity group) in this data cube, the care refers to only when done as part of voluntary work.

Carer

A carer is a person in the household specified as the provider of assistance to a person with a disability; or a person who identifies him/herself as the provider of assistance to a person with a long-term illness or disability living in another household.

Caring for adults

For the purpose of Table 1 (under 'voluntary work and care' activity group) in the Work and Family Balance data cube this activity category included physical care and emotional support as well as any other activities done for anyone outside the household who was sick, frail or who had a disability.

For the purpose of Table 3 in Work and Family Balance data cube, this refers to providing care to adults in the household.

Caring for children

When care is provided by any person aged 15 years or over to:

• his/her own child(ren) aged under 15 years living with them
• his/her own child(ren) aged under 15 years who do not usually live with them
• a child other than his/her own child aged under 15 years of age.

For the purpose of Table 1 (under 'voluntary work and care' activity group) in the Work and Family Balance data cube, care refers to care only performed as part of voluntary work.Child

A person of any age who is a natural, adopted, step, or foster son or daughter of a couple or lone parent, usually resident in the same household. A child is also any individual under 15 years of age, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children and unrelated children under 15 years of age. In these cases in order to be classified as a child, the person can have no child or partner of their own usually resident in the household.

Child care activities

A major activity classification group that relates to all activities done for children aged under 15 years. It contains activities such as the physical and emotional care of children, teaching, reprimanding, playing with and talking to children. It also includes minding children and visiting child care establishments or schools.

Disability

Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disability (as collected) is the presence of a limitation, restriction or impairment due to a physical, emotional or nervous condition which had lasted or was likely to last six months or more.

Domestic activities

A major activity classification group (See Total housework and Total other household work).

Employed

Employed persons include all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers); or worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers); or
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week; or
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week; or
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement; or
  • on strike or locked out; or
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job; or
• were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Employed full-time

Persons employed full time are those employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.Employed part-time

Persons employed part time are those employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.

Employee

A person who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from their employer while working on a commission basis, tips, piece rates, or payment in kind, or a person who operates their own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees. Please note that this definition differs to that used for data on employment conditions in the economic security domain.

Employment related activities

A major activity classification group which includes activities carried out in paid employment, or unpaid work in a family business or farm; job search activities such as travel to work or in the course of job search, and time spent in the workplace during work breaks. Looking at job advertisements in a newspaper has been coded as job search. In cases where respondents who were not in the labour force according to their interview reported doing clerical and related work at home, and their spouse was self-employed, these activities were coded as unpaid work in a family business.

Labour force status

Labour force status is a classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into the 'labour force' (those employed or unemployed) or into 'not in the labour force', as defined. The definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.

Not in the labour force

Persons not in the labour force are those people who, during the reference week, were not in the categories 'employed' or 'unemployed'. They include people who were keeping house (unpaid), retired, voluntarily inactive, permanently unable to work, in gaol, trainee teachers, members of contemplative religious orders, and persons whose only activity during the reference week was jury service or unpaid voluntary work for a charitable organisation.

Paid work

Paid work is work activity undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services in the marketplace. It also includes work activity undertaken without pay in a family business, as well as travel associated with work activity.

Partner

A person in a couple relationship with another person usually resident in the same household. The couple relationship may be in either a registered or de facto marriage, and includes same-sex couples.Primary activity

Primary activity is the main activity undertaken by the respondent and is recorded by the respondent in the first column of the diary under 'What was your main activity'.

Primary carer

A person who is the largest provider of informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to a person with one or more disabilities. The assistance has to be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least six months and be provided for one or more core activities (communication, mobility and self care).

Provided care

Whether a person provided care in the reference week. See Care.

Purchasing goods and services

A major activity classification group that includes activities such as purchasing consumer and durable goods, and buying repair services and administrative services.

Reference week

The week preceding the week in which the interview was conducted.

Secondary activity

Secondary activity is the activity undertaken in addition to the primary activity. In addition to recording primary activities, the respondents are also asked to record in the third diary column: 'What else were you doing at the same time'.

Total housework

The activity group Domestic activities has been further divided into two sub-groups, 'Total housework' and 'Total other household work'. Total housework includes food preparation, service and clean-up; washing, ironing and clothes care; and other housework such as indoor cleaning and tidying activities. The reason for this division is that previous time use studies have shown men's domestic work is mostly identified in 'Total other household work', and women's domestic work is mostly identified in 'Total housework'. Total other household work

Includes domestic management, home and car maintenance and improvement, pet care and care of the grounds. Associated travel is not included.

Type of voluntary activity

Activities performed in the preceding 12 months were collected for each organisation for which a volunteer worked, up to a maximum of three organisations. Volunteers may have performed multiple activities for each organisation. When a volunteer worked for more than three organisations in the preceding 12 months, activity information was only collected for the three organisations for which the volunteer worked the most hours. The categories are:

• Administration/clerical work/recruitment

Office work, typing and word processing, answering phones, filing, basic bookkeeping. Includes conducting campaigns for recruiting volunteers. Recruiting volunteers for a fundraising program was coded under this category rather than fundraising.

• Befriending/supportive listening/counselling/mentoring

Includes providing companionship, staffing help lines and participating in mentoring schemes, e.g. for young people or for mothers in disadvantaged circumstances.

• Coaching/judging/refereeing

Includes training sports teams, adjudicating competitions for agricultural or wine shows, public speaking contests, umpiring sporting contests.

• Fundraising/sales

Includes a range of activities directed predominantly towards assisting organisations to raise money for their own programs or for those of another organisation. Examples include: door-knocking, selling buttons on button day, making or selling items on a stall or in a charity shop.

• Management/committee work

Participation in management committees and functions, which involves making decisions about the direction and operation of an organisation. Examples include: sitting on a board, being an office bearer, being a member of the management board of a community welfare organisation, treasurer for the local church, managing a service or program, program planning.

• Performing/media production

Includes performing, public radio and television, producing films and videos/DVDs, newsletters, pamphlets and other printed material and equivalent material produced on the Internet.

• Personal care/assistance

Includes a wide range of activities such as: supervising or providing help with showering/bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet and health care activities such as helping to administer medication, or dressing wounds.

• Preparing/serving food

Includes food and drink preparation, serving meals and cleaning up. Examples are assisting in school tuckshops, helping with meals at children's camps, community sausage sizzles and reheating and serving frozen meals provided to frail aged people.

Unemployed

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week, or
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.
  

Unpaid work

Household or community work activity undertaken without pay (excluding work in a family business) that could be replaced by market goods or paid services. It includes: volunteering or other community work undertaken without pay, domestic work, child care, informal care of older people or people with a disability, shopping, and communication and travel associated with these activities.

Voluntary work and care

A major activity classification group that includes physical and emotional caring activities for adults, unpaid work for organisations and assisting family, friends, neighbours and others. Volunteer

A volunteer is someone who willingly gave unpaid help, in the form of time, service or skills, to or through an organisation or group. The reference period was the 12 months prior to the survey. Voluntary work done overseas is out of scope. The reimbursement of expenses in full or part (e.g. token payments) or small gifts (e.g. sports club T-shirts or caps) was not regarded as payment of salary, and people who received these were still included as voluntary workers. However, people who received payment in kind for the work they did (e.g. receiving farm produce as payment for work done on a farm, rather than cash) were not included as volunteers.

From the 2006 voluntary work collection (the 2006 General Social Survey), in consultation with the peak body for volunteer organisations, the 'willingly undertaken' part of the definition was refined by the exclusion of an involvement with an organisation that, while recognised as unpaid community work, was not strictly voluntary or would not normally be seen as voluntary work including the Work for the Dole Program or Community Work under Mutual Obligation; work experience/part of an unpaid work trial; work under a Community Service Order; a student placement; or emergency work during an industrial dispute.

Volunteer rate

For any group, the number of volunteers in that group expressed as a percentage of total population in that group.

Volunteering activity

Activity conducted for volunteering. Details for individuals were collected for up to three organisations. When the unit of analysis is the volunteer's involvement with an organisation rather than the volunteer, the same activity is counted more than once if it is done for more than one organisation. See Type of voluntary activity.

Work

Work is an effort (physical or mental) or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.

This domain uses a broader definition of work and includes both paid and unpaid work. Paid work includes activities undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods and services, and unpaid work is primarily household or community work undertaken without pay that could be replaced by market goods and services.

In the Economic Security and Education domains, work refers to only economic activities conducted as part of paid employment. The concept of employment is based on the principle that a person must have been engaged in some economic activity (work) over a short reference period. These economic activities (work) are undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services.

Working arrangements to care

Working arrangements that were used so that the respondent could care for someone in the week prior to the interview. Arrangements include: paid leave, unpaid leave, flexible working hours, rostered days off, working from home, informal arrangements with employer or taking a child in to work.