IEO
The Index of Education and Occupation (IEO) is designed to reflect the educational and occupational level of communities. The education variables in this index show either the level of qualification achieved or whether further education is being undertaken. The occupation variables classify the workforce into the major groups and skill levels of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) and the unemployed. This index does not include any income variables.
A low score indicates relatively lower education and occupation status of people in the area in general. For example, an area could have a low score if there are:
- many people without qualifications, or many people in low skilled occupations or many people unemployed, AND
- few people with a high level of qualifications or in highly skilled occupations.
A
high score indicates relatively higher education and occupation status of people in the area in general. For example, an area could have a high score if there are:
- many people with higher education qualifications or many people in highly skilled occupations, AND
- few people without qualifications or few people in low skilled occupations.
This index is recommended in situations where the user:
- is interested in only education and occupation variables
- is interested in an index that does not include income.
For example, IEO may be applicable when a user:
- is analysing the relationship between income and the index.
IEO is not recommended if the user:
- is only interested in disadvantage (not advantage)
- is interested in a more general measure of advantage and disadvantage, such as IRSAD
- is using the index in an analysis with information that has already been included in the index, such as unemployment.
IEO variables
The variables used in the index are listed in this section.
The following variables are considered to be indicators of disadvantage. NOYR12ORHIGHER is the strongest indicator of disadvantage in the index.
- NOYR12ORHIGHER: % People aged 15 years and over whose highest level of education is Year 11 or lower. Includes Certificate I and II
- OCC_SKILL5: % Employed people who work in a Skill Level 5 occupation
- OCC_SKILL4: % Employed people who work in a Skill Level 4 occupation
- CERTIFICATE: % People aged 15 years and over whose highest level of educational attainment is a certificate III or IV qualification
- UNEMPLOYED: % People (in the labour force) unemployed
- NOEDU: % People aged 15 years and over who have no educational attainment
The following variables are considered to be indicators of advantage. OCC_SKILL1 is the strongest indicator of advantage in the index.
- OCC_SKILL1: % Employed people who work in a Skill Level 1 occupation
- DIPLOMA: % People aged 15 years and over whose highest level of education attainment is a diploma qualification
- ATUNI: % People aged 15 years and over at university or other tertiary institution
- OCC_SKILL2: % Employed people who work in a Skill Level 2 occupation
Excluded variables
The following variable was initially considered for the index, but was excluded due to being highly correlated with other variables.
- DEGREE:% People aged 15 years and over whose highest level of educational attainment is a bachelor degree or higher qualification
The following variable was initially considered for the index, but was excluded when the analysis showed that it was a weak indicator of relative disadvantage in this data. For more information, please refer to Chapter 4.3 in the SEIFA 2016 Technical Paper, which is available from the Downloads tab.
- ATSCHOOL: % People aged 15 years and over who are still attending secondary school
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