6150.0 - Australian Labour Account: Concepts, Sources and Methods, June 2018

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/06/2018

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PERSONS QUADRANT

The Persons quadrant provides statistics on persons employed, persons looking for and available for employment, and persons with potential for further employment.

Figure 8.1: Persons Quadrant, Identity Relationship Diagram

Graphic: Persons Quadrant, Identity Relationship Diagram

PERSONS CONCEPTS

The official measure of the population of Australia is based on the concept of usual residence. It refers to all people, regardless of nationality, citizenship or legal status, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families.

The Australian Labour Account uses a practical application of the ‘12/16’ rule to establish usual resident status for non-resident visa holders with working rights. A person is regarded as a usual resident if they have been (or expect to be) residing in Australia for a period of 12 months or more. This 12 month period does not have to be continuous and is measured over a 16 month period. For more information on the ‘12/16 month rule’ methodology, see the Technical Note in Migration, Australia, 2008-09 (ABS cat. no. 3412.0).

The scope of the population in the Australian Labour Account includes all persons who contribute to Australian economic activity, irrespective of age.

PERSONS SOURCES

Source data for quarterly and industry estimates of Persons

Labour statistics represented in the Persons quadrant are mostly sourced from estimates calculated from the monthly Labour Force Survey. Data from the monthly Labour Force Survey are released in two stages: the first being the Labour Force, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6202.0) product set, and the second including the Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (ABS cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) on a monthly basis, and the Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (ABS cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) on a quarterly basis. Labour Force Survey data are supplemented with defence force information, child workers information and information on non-residents.

Data from the ABS Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (LEED) are used to determine industry of employment of secondary job holders, and applied to Labour Force Survey data to calculate total jobs in each industry. This information was used to adjust the Labour Force Survey estimate of employed persons in each industry, by excluding multiple job holding within the same industry from the total number of filled jobs.

Table 8.2 below summarises data sources used in compiling quarterly and industry estimates of persons.

Table 8.2: Description of quarterly data sources and uses for the Persons Quadrant


Source data	Use in compiling quarterly data

• Labour Force, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6202.0) • Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (ABS cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) • Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (ABS cat. no. 6291.0.55.003)	Used to compile estimates of • employed persons; • unemployed persons; • underemployed persons, • civilian population estimates; and • not in the labour force.

Defence force information (National Accounts)	Used to estimate out of scope employed defence personnel.

Child Employment, Australia, 2006 (ABS cat. no. 6211.0)	Used to estimate out of scope employed children.

Migration, Australia (ABS cat. no. 3412.0) and Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (ABS cat. no. 3401.0)	Used to estimate out of scope non-residents working in Australia.

Balance of Payments	Used to estimate out of scope employed Australian residents living in Australia employed by overseas companies/business entities.

Australian Demographic Statistics (ABS. cat. no. 3101.0)	Used for the total estimated resident population.

Source data for annual estimates of Persons

The same source data are used in compiling annual estimates in the Persons quadrant.

PERSONS METHODS

The Persons quadrant tables provide data on the number of employed and unemployed for each quarter. Persons statistics are compiled for the 19 ANZSIC Industry divisions and for the economy as a whole. Unless otherwise stated, the methods described apply to both levels of aggregation.

Graphic: Persons Quadrant Diagram

Labour Account Employed Persons

Similar adjustments to those made in compiling the Jobs Table are made to adjust the employed persons estimate from the Labour Force Survey to align with 2008 SNA production and residence concepts. These include calculating estimates for:

permanent defence force personnel;
employed persons under 15 years of age (child workers);
non-residents employed in Australia by Australian businesses; and
Australian residents employed working overseas.

At an industry level, similar assumptions are made with respect to multiple job holding for these groups as for employed persons generally, with the exception of the permanent defence forces whose employment conditions are presumed to exclude secondary jobs. Employed children under 15 years are also assumed to not hold secondary jobs.

Please refer to the Jobs Quadrant Methods for more detail regarding these adjustments.

Similar to the Jobs quadrant, the Persons quadrant, where relevant, uses data sourced from information collected in the Labour Force Survey in the last month of the relevant quarter, and apportions this across the industries using the related quarterly labour force industry data. For example, estimates in the September quarter labour account are sourced from September month Labour Force data (ABS cat.no. 6202.0), which are then distributed across industry divisions from the industry distribution of quarterly data captured in the August Labour Force Survey published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (ABS cat. no. 6291.0.55.003).

Calculation of Employed Persons by Industry

At an industry level, the number of employed persons is the sum of those holding main jobs in the industry plus those holding secondary jobs after adjusting for double counting (i.e. for persons holding multiple jobs in the same industry). The Labour Force Survey captures data quarterly on the industry of the main job held by employed persons. For each employed person, it also records the number of secondary jobs held (second, third, fourth or more). The Labour Force Survey does not record the industry of secondary jobs.

Data from the ABS Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (LEED) are then used to determine the proportions of the industry of employment of second jobs for multiple job holders, and applied to industry of main job Labour Force Survey data. These proportions from the LEED are updated as new data points become available. These proportions are used to allocate the relevant quarterly Labour Force Survey secondary job holdings to each industry, to estimate the total number of filled jobs in each industry.

To estimate the number of people employed in each industry, instances where the industry of second job is the same as the industry of main job are identified. These jobs are removed to derive a count of the number of additional people employed in each industry, and added to LFS main job data.

The Labour Force Survey provides an estimate of employed persons in each industry of main job. The Australian Labour Account produces the number of people employed in each industry from an industry perspective. As a result, the sum of employed persons in the Australian Labour Account across industry divisions does not equal the total number of people employed in the whole economy.

The purpose of adjusting the Labour Force Survey number of people employed in each industry of main job is to provide information on the total number of people employed in each industry in a time series. This could be used to assess training programs or policy changes targeting a particular industry, to have a more realistic picture of the number of people who may be impacted by any such change.

Additional estimates of Persons

The Persons quadrant includes additional related estimates at both total economy and industry levels for:

Unemployed Persons;
Underemployed Persons;
Underutilised Persons; and
Persons not in the Labour Force (total economy only).

It should be noted that industry estimates for the unemployed population are based on industry of last job worked (within the past two years) from the Labour Force Survey, and do not necessarily equate to the industries in which the unemployed are currently seeking work, nor do they include those who have never held a job previously. As such, care should be exercised when interpreting estimates of unemployed persons (and therefore underutilised persons and the total labour force) on an industry basis.

Annual estimates of Persons

The Persons quadrant contains stock data, which are data that measure certain attributes at a point in time. To determine an annual estimate of persons in this quadrant, an average level is derived using a simple arithmetic average of the four quarterly estimates. Refer to Labour Account Methods for an example of this method.

The annual estimate of employed persons is an approximate estimate of the number of persons employed at any point in time during the year.