GLOSSARY

Actual hours worked

Actual hours worked is the amount of time a person actually spent at work during a specified reference period. The time includes all paid and unpaid overtime, but excludes hours for which paid but not worked (such as paid annual leave or public holidays), meal breaks and time spent on travel to and from work. Actual hours worked (for a specific reference period) may differ from usual hours worked due to illness, vacation, strike, overtime work, a change of job or similar reasons.

Adult employees

Employees who are 21 years of age or over, and employees under 21 years old who are paid at the full adult rate for their occupation.

Aggregate monthly hours worked

Aggregate monthly hours worked measures the total number of actual hours worked by employed persons in a calendar month. It differs from the actual hours worked estimates (and the usual hours worked estimates) since these refer only to the hours worked in the reference week. Actual and usual hours worked cannot be aggregated across time to produce either quarterly or annual estimates as they relate to only a single week in the month. In contrast, aggregate monthly hours worked estimates are a true monthly measure, and may be aggregated across time to produce both quarterly and annual estimates.

Average actual weekly hours worked

The average total number of hours a group of employed persons has actually worked during the reference week, not necessarily hours for which paid. This is calculated as the aggregate actual weekly hours worked by a group of employed persons divided by the number of persons in the group.

Average weekly earnings

Average weekly earnings represent average gross (before tax) earnings of employees and do not relate to average award rates nor to the earnings of the 'average person'. Estimates of average weekly earnings are derived by dividing estimates of weekly total earnings by estimates of number of employees.

Award only

Awards are legally enforceable determinations made by federal or state industrial tribunals that set the terms of employment (pay and/or conditions), usually in a particular industry or occupation. Awards may be the sole mechanism used to set the pay and/or conditions for an employee or group of employees, or alternatively may be used in conjunction with an individual or collective agreement.

Employees are classified to the Award or pay scale only category if they are paid at the rate of pay specified in the Award and are not paid more than that rate of pay.

Children living without an employed parent

For this measure, a child is defined as a person who is under 15 years of age who is a natural, adopted, step, foster or nominal son or daughter of a couple or lone parent, usually resident in the same household. The number of children living without an employed parent is determined through the labour force status of parent(s) in the parent-child relationship who are usually resident in the household. This measure includes couple families where both parents are either unemployed or not in the labour force and lone parent families where the sole parent is unemployed or not in the labour force as defined.

Civilian population aged 15 years and over

All usual residents of Australia aged 15 years and over except members of the permanent defence forces, certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments customarily excluded from census and estimated population counts, overseas residents in Australia, and members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

Collective agreement

An agreement between an employer (or group of employers) and a group of employees (or one or more unions or employee associations representing the employees). A collective agreement sets the terms of employment (pay and/or conditions) for a group of employees, and is usually registered with a federal or state industrial tribunal or authority.

Employees are classified to the Collective agreement category if they had the main part of their pay set by a registered or unregistered collective agreement or enterprise award.

Couple family

A couple family is identified by the existence of a couple relationship. A couple relationship is defined as two people usually residing in the same household who share a social, economic and emotional bond usually associated with marriage and who consider their relationship to be a marriage or marriage-like union. This relationship is identified by the presence of a registered marriage or de facto marriage. A couple family can be with or without children, and may or may not include other related individuals. A couple family with children present can be expanded to elaborate on the characteristics of those children, such as their number, age and dependency status.

Dependent child

A dependent child is a person who is either a child under 15 years of age, or a dependent student (see Dependent student below). To be regarded as a child the person can have no identified partner or child of his/her own usually resident in the household.

Dependent student

A dependent student is a natural, adopted, step, or foster child who is 15-24 years of age and who attends a secondary or tertiary educational institution as a full-time student and for whom there is no identified partner or child of his/her own usually resident in the same household.

Discouraged jobseekers

Discouraged jobseekers are people with marginal attachment to the labour force who wanted to work and were available to start work within the next four weeks but whose main reason for not actively looking for work was that they believed they would not find a job for any of the following reasons:

• considered to be too young by employers;
• considered to be too old by employers;
• believed ill health or disability discourages employers;
• lacked necessary schooling, training, skills or experience;
• difficulties because of language or ethnic background;
• no jobs in their locality or line of work;
• no jobs in suitable hours; or
• no jobs at all.

Disputes which ended during the reference period

Disputes which ended during the period encompasses those disputes which:

• started in a previous period and ended in the reference period; and
• began and ended in the reference period

Duration of unemployment

Duration of unemployment is the period of time from when an unemployed person began looking for work, until the end of the reference week; or the period of time since an unemployed person last worked in any job for two weeks or more, until the end of the reference week; whichever was the shorter period.

Employed

Employed persons include all people 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);
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers);
• 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;
  • 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;
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement;
  • on strike or locked out;
  • 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

People employed full-time are those employed people who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working fewer 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 fewer 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.

Employed persons who work part-time (percentage)

The percentage of employed people who work part time is calculated as the number of people who are employed part-time, expressed as a percentage of all employed people.

Employees

As relating to the Average weekly earnings key measure: Employees refer to all wage and salary earners who received pay for any part of the reference period.
As relating to the Industrial disputes key measures: Employees refers to wage and salary earners only. Excluded are persons who are self employed and employers.
As relating to all other references to employees: Persons who worked for a private or public employer and received pay for the reference period in the form of wages or salaries, a commission while also receiving a retainer, tips, piece rates or payment in kind. Persons who operated their own incorporated business with or without hiring employees were also included as employees.

Employment to population ratio

The employment to population ratio is calculated as the number of employed persons, expressed as a percentage of the civilian population.

Extended labour force underutilisation rate

The extended labour force underutilisation rate is calculated as the unemployed, plus the underemployed, plus two groups who are marginally attached to the labour force:

(i) persons actively looking for work, not available to start work in the reference week, but available to start work within four weeks; and
(ii) discouraged jobseekers

as a percentage of the labour force augmented by (i) and (ii).

Family

A family consists of two or more people, one of whom is at least 15 years of age, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering, and who are usually resident in the same household. The basis of a family is formed by identifying the presence of a couple relationship, lone parent-child relationship or other blood relationship. Some households will, therefore, contain more than one family.

Full-time employed

People employed full-time are those employed people who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working fewer than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

Full-time employees

Employees who normally work the agreed or award hours for a full-time employee in their occupation. If agreed or award hours do not apply, employees are regarded as full-time if they usually work 35 hours or more per week.

Fully engaged in education or work

People fully engaged in education or work, were in full-time work or in full-time education, or in part-time work combined with part-time education in the survey reference week.

Hours paid for

Hours paid for is the amount of time for which employees were paid in their main job, not necessarily the number of hours actually worked during the reference week (e.g. an employee on paid leave for the week was asked to report the number of hours for which they were paid).

Household

Households consist of one or more people, at least one of whom is at least 15 years of age, usually resident in the same private dwelling.

Index number series

An index number series measures the change over time from a reference base period value, which is normally presented as an index value of 100.0.

Individual arrangement

An arrangement between an employer and an individual employee on the terms of employment (pay and/or conditions) for the employee. Common types of individual arrangements are individual contracts, letters of offer and common law contracts. An individual contract (or letter of offer) may specify all terms of employment, or alternatively may reference an award for some conditions and/or in the setting of pay (e.g. over award payments). Individual contracts may also be registered with a federal or state industrial tribunal or authority (e.g. as an Australian Workplace Agreement). However, the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 ceased the registration of new individual agreements from 28 March 2008.

Employees are classified to the Individual arrangement category if they have the main part of their pay set by an individual contract, registered individual agreement (e.g. Australian Workplace Agreement), common law contract, or if they receive over award payments by individual agreement.

Industrial dispute

An industrial dispute is defined as a state of disagreement over an issue or group of issues between an employer and its employees, which results in employees ceasing work. Industrial disputes comprise strikes, which are a withdrawal from work by a group of employees; and lockouts, which are a refusal by an employer or group of employers to permit some or all of their employees to work.

Industry

An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that undertake similar economic activities to produce goods and/or services. In this publication, industry refers to ANZSIC Division as classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0).

Job vacancy

A job vacancy is a job available for immediate filling on the survey reference date and for which recruitment action had been taken. Recruitment action includes efforts to fill vacancies by advertising, by factory notices, by notifying public or private employment agencies or trade unions and by contacting, interviewing or selecting applicants already registered with the enterprise or organisation.
Estimates of job vacancies exclude:

• jobs not available for immediate filling on the survey reference date;
• jobs for which no recruitment action has been taken;
• jobs which became vacant on the survey date and were filled on the same day;
• jobs of less than one day's duration;
• jobs only available to be filled by internal applicants within an organisation;
• jobs to be filled by employees returning from paid or unpaid leave or after industrial disputes;
• vacancies for work to be carried out by contractors; and
• jobs for which a person has been appointed but has not yet commenced duty.

Jurisdictional coverage

The workplace relations jurisdiction (i.e federal or state) under which that the employee is deemed to be for pay-setting purposes.

Labour force

For any group, the labour force consists of people who were employed or unemployed, as defined.

Labour force participation rate

The labour force participation rate for any group within the population is the labour force component of that group, expressed as a percentage of the population in that group.

Labour force status

Labour force status is a classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into the categories employed and unemployed (which together comprise the labour force) and not in the labour force, as defined.

Labour force underutilisation rate

The labour force underutilisation rate is the sum of the number of persons unemployed and the number of persons underemployed, expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

Labour underutilisation

Labour underutilisation is a measure of excess labour capacity in an economy. It can be measured using either population or hours based estimates. See Labour force underutilisation rate; Extended labour force underutilisation rate; and Volume labour force underutilisation rate.

Left a job

People who left a job are unemployed people who have worked for two weeks or more in the past two years and left that job voluntarily, for example, because of:

• unsatisfactory work arrangements/pay/hours;
• the job was a holiday job or they left the job to return to studies; or
• their last job was running their own business and they closed down or sold that business for reasons other than financial difficulties.

Long-term unemployed

The long-term unemployed are people who have been unemployed for 52 weeks or more. See Duration of unemployment.

Long-term unemployed as a proportion of total unemployment

For any group, the long term unemployed as a proportion of total unemployment is the number of long-term unemployed persons, expressed as a percentage of the unemployed population.

Long-term unemployment rate

The long term unemployment rate for any group is the number of long-term unemployed persons, expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

Lost a job

People who lost a job are unemployed people who have worked for two weeks or more in the past two years and left that job involuntarily, that is, were:

• laid off or retrenched from that job;
• left that job because of their own ill-health or injury;
• the job was seasonal or temporary; or
• their last job was running their own business and the business closed down because of financial difficulties.

Managerial employees

Employees who are in charge of a significant number of employees and/or have strategic responsibilities in the conduct or operations of the organisation, and usually do not have an entitlement to paid overtime. Includes professionally qualified staff who primarily perform managerial tasks in conjunction with utilising their professional skills. Owner managers of incorporated enterprises are regarded as managerial employees.

Marginal attachment to the labour force

People with marginal attachment to the labour force were not in the labour force in the reference week, wanted to work and:

• were actively looking for work but did not meet the availability criteria to be classified as unemployed; or
• were not actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks.

The criteria for determining those in the labour force are based on activity (i.e. working or looking for work) and availability to start work during the reference week. The criteria associated with marginal attachment to the labour force, in particular the concepts of wanting to work and reasons for not actively looking for work, are more subjective. Hence, the measurement against these criteria is affected by the respondent’s own interpretation of the concepts used. An individual respondent’s interpretation may be affected by their work aspirations, as well as family, economic and other commitments.

Median earnings

Median earnings is the amount of earnings which divides employees into two groups containing equal numbers of employees, one half with earnings below the median and the other half with earnings above the median.

Method of setting pay

How the main part of an employee's pay is set. Employees are classified to one of the following categories: Award only; Collective agreement; or Individual arrangement. Employees classified to the Collective agreement or Individual arrangement categories are further classified according to whether the agreement is registered with a federal or state industrial tribunal or authority.

Non-managerial employees

Employees who are not managerial employees (as defined above), including non-managerial professionals and some employees with supervisory responsibilities.

Not in the labour force

People not in the labour force are those who were not in the categories 'employed' or 'unemployed' as defined.

Occupation

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation which are grouped together for the purposes of classification. In this publication occupation refers to Major Group as defined by ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1, 2009 (cat. no. 1220.0).

One-parent family

One-parent families consist of a lone parent with at least one child (regardless of age) who is also usually resident in the household and who has no identified partner or child of his/her own. The family may also include any number of other related individuals.

Ordinary time cash earnings

Payment for award, standard or agreed hours of work, including allowances, penalty payments, payments by measured result and regular bonuses and commissions. Amounts salary sacrificed are also included. Excluded are non-cash components of salary packages, overtime payments, retrospective pay, pay in advance, leave loadings, severance pay, and termination and redundancy payments.

Original series

Original series estimates are produced directly from the survey data and have not been subject to seasonal adjustment or trend estimation.

Other family

Other family is defined as a group of related individuals residing in the same household, who cannot be categorised as belonging to a couple or one parent family.

Owner managers of incorporated enterprises

Persons who work in their own incorporated enterprise - that is, a business entity which is registered as a separate legal entity to its members or owners (for example, a limited liability company).

Owner managers of incorporated enterprises are presented separately in the 'method of setting pay' measure.

Participation rate

For any group, the participation rate is the labour force, expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over.

Part-time employed

Persons employed part-time are those employed persons who usually worked fewer 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.

Part-time employed who are underemployed

For any group, part-time employed who are underemployed is the number of people who are both part-time employed and underemployed workers, expressed as a percentage of all part-time employed.

Part-time work

See Part-time employed.

Seasonally adjusted series

A seasonally adjusted series is a time series of estimates with the estimated effects of normal seasonal variation removed.

Sector

Public sector comprises local government authorities and all government departments and agencies created by, or reporting to, the Commonwealth, or state/territory parliaments. Private sector comprises all organisations not classified as public sector.

Total hourly rates of pay index excluding bonuses

The total hourly rates of pay index excluding bonuses measures the quarterly change in combined ordinary income and overtime hourly rates of pay.

Trade union

A trade union is an organisation consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members.

Trade union member

Trade union members are employees who are members of a trade union, not necessarily in connection with their main job.

Trend series

A trend series is a smoothed seasonally adjusted time series of estimates.

Underemployed workers

Underemployed workers are employed persons aged 15 years and over who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:

• persons employed part-time who want to work more hours and are available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the four weeks subsequent to the survey; or
• persons employed full-time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available). It is assumed that these people wanted to work full-time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.

Underemployment rate

The underemployment rate is the number of underemployed workers, expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

Unemployed

Unemployed persons include all people 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.

Unemployed looking for first full-time job

Unemployed looking for first full-time job consists of unemployed persons looking for full-time work who had never worked full-time for two weeks or more.

Unemployed looking for first job

Unemployed looking for first job consists of unemployed persons who had never worked for two weeks or more.

Unemployed looking for full-time work

Unemployed looking for full-time work consists of unemployed persons who:

• actively looked for full-time work; or
• were waiting to start a new full-time job.

Unemployed looking for part-time work

Unemployed looking for part-time work consists of unemployed persons who:

• actively looked for part-time work only; or
• were waiting to start a new part-time job.

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons, expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

Unemployment to population ratio

The unemployment to population ratio is the number of unemployed people, expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over.

Usual hours worked

Usual hours of work refer to a typical period rather than to a specified reference period. The concept of usual hours applies both to persons at work and to persons temporarily absent from work, and is defined as the hours worked during a typical week or day. Actual hours worked (for a specific reference period) may differ from usual hours worked due to illness, vacation, strike, overtime work, a change of job, or similar reasons.

Volume labour force underutilisation rate

The volume labour force underutilisation rate is the total volume of underutilised labour in the labour force (hours sought by unemployed people, plus additional hours preferred by underemployed people), expressed as a percentage of the volume of potential labour in the labour force (see definition below).

Volume measure of labour underutilisation

The volume measure of labour underutilisation is an hours based or volume measure of labour underutilisation which quantifies the hours of available labour that are unutilised. It is calculated as the hours of labour sought by unemployed persons plus the hours of labour preferred by underemployed workers.

Volume of potential labour in the labour force

The volume of potential labour in the labour force is equal to the hours of labour sought by unemployed persons, plus the hours of labour preferred by underemployed workers (both utilised and unutilised), plus the hours of labour usually provided by employed persons who are not underemployed.

Volume underemployment rate

The volume underemployment rate is the volume of additional hours preferred by underemployed people, expressed as a percentage of the volume of potential labour in the labour force.

Volume unemployment rate

The volume unemployment rate is the volume of hours sought by unemployed people, expressed as a percentage of the volume of potential labour in the labour force.

Wage price index

The wage price index measures changes in the price of wages.

Weekly ordinary time earnings

Weekly ordinary time earnings refers to one week's earnings of employees for the reference period, attributable to award, standard or agreed hours of work. It is calculated before taxation and any other deductions (e.g. superannuation, board and lodging) have been made. Included in ordinary time earnings are:

• award, workplace and enterprise bargaining payments, and other agreed base rates of pay, over-award and over-agreed payments, penalty payments, shift and other allowances;
• commissions and retainers;
• bonuses and similar payments related to the reference period;
• payments under incentive or piecework;
• payments under profit sharing schemes normally paid each pay period;
• payment for leave taken during the reference period;
• all workers' compensation payments made through the payroll; and
• salary payments made to directors.

Excluded are amounts salary sacrificed, non-cash components of salary packages, overtime payments, retrospective pay, pay in advance, leave loadings, severance, termination and redundancy payments, and other payments not related to the reference period.

Weekly total earnings

Weekly total earnings of employees is equal to weekly ordinary time earnings plus weekly overtime earnings.

With paid leave entitlements

Employees (excluding OMIEs) with paid leave entitlements are those who were entitled to either paid holiday leave or paid sick leave (or both) in their main job.

Without paid leave entitlements

Employees (excluding OMIEs) without paid leave entitlements are those who were not entitled to paid holiday leave and paid sick leave, or did not know whether they were entitled to paid holiday leave or paid sick leave in their main job.

Working days lost

Working days lost refers to working days lost by employees directly and indirectly involved in the dispute.

Working days lost per employee involved

Working days lost per employee involved refers to the average number of working days lost per employee involved in the dispute, calculated by dividing the number of working days lost in the dispute by the number of employees involved (both directly and indirectly).

Working days lost per thousand employees

Working days lost per thousand employees are calculated by dividing the total number of working days lost by the total number of employees in the Australian labour force and multiplying by 1,000.