TECHNICAL NOTE 1 METHODOLOGY


INTRODUCTION

1 Explanatory Notes paragraphs 2-4 outline the sources of data (ABS directly collected data and Business Activity Statement (BAS) data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)), and the economic statistics units model used on the ABS Business Register (ABSBR).


STATISTICAL UNITS DEFINED ON THE ABS BUSINESS REGISTER

2 The current economic statistics units model was introduced in mid 2002, to better use the information available as a result of The New Tax System (TNTS). This units model allocates businesses to one of two sub-populations. The vast majority of businesses are in what is called the ATO maintained population (ATOMP), while the remaining businesses are in the ABS maintained population (ABSMP). Together, these two sub-populations make up the ABSBR population.


ATO MAINTAINED POPULATION

3 Most businesses and organisations in Australia need to obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN). They are then included on the whole-of-government register of businesses, the Australian Business Register (ABR), which is maintained by the ATO. As most of these businesses have simple structures, a unit registered for an ABN will satisfy ABS statistical requirements. The businesses with simple structures constitute the ATOMP, and the ABN unit is used as the statistical unit for all ABS economic collections (in this case, the ABS has aligned its statistical units structure with the ABN unit).


ABS MAINTAINED POPULATION

4 For the population of businesses where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical requirements, the ABS maintains its own units structure through direct contact with the business, which constitutes the ABSMP. This population consists typically of large, complex and diverse businesses. The statistical units model described below caters for such businesses.

• Enterprise group: This is a unit covering all the operations in Australia of one or more legal entities under common ownership and/or control. It covers all the operations in Australia of legal entities which are related in terms of the current Corporations Law (as amended by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1991). These legal entities include companies, trusts and partnerships. Majority ownership is not required for control to be exercised.
• Enterprise: An institutional unit comprising:
  • a single legal entity or business entity, or
  • more than one legal entity or business entity within the same enterprise group and in the same institutional sub-sector (i.e. they are all classified to a single Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia (SISCA) sub-sector).
• Type of activity unit (TAU): The TAU comprises one or more business entities, sub-entities or branches of a business entity within an enterprise group that can report production and employment data for similar economic activities. When a minimum set of data items are available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision (and the TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the ANZSIC). Where a business cannot supply adequate data for each industry, a TAU is formed which contains activity in more than one industry subdivision.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE STATISTICAL UNITS TO THE ESTIMATES

5 The following paragraphs outline the way in which categories of statistical units contribute to the estimates of financial and economic variables presented in this publication.


TAUs

6 All units in the ABSMP (i.e. TAUs) were eligible to be selected for direct collection. Direct collection of data from these units is necessary because:

• many large and complex employing businesses have more than one legal entity, making it difficult to identify all legal entities for that business in the BAS data
• BAS data do not include all of the detailed information that the ABS requires from large and complex businesses.

ABN units

7 All units on the ABSBR not classified as TAUs were ABN units from the ATOMP.

8 An indication of the importance of these populations can be gained from their contribution to the national estimate of sales and service income for Total selected industries. The following table shows their proportional contributions to sales and service income.

CONTRIBUTION TO SALES AND SERVICE INCOME
	TAU	ABN unit	Total
	%	%	%
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	19	81	100
Mining	86	14	100
Manufacturing	69	31	100
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	91	9	100
Construction	23	77	100
Wholesale trade	53	47	100
Retail trade	47	53	100
Accommodation and food services	22	78	100
Transport, postal and warehousing	51	49	100
Information media and telecommunications	83	17	100
Rental, hiring and real estate services	18	82	100
Professional, scientific and technical services	31	69	100
Administrative and support services	35	65	100
Public administration and safety (private)	34	66	100
Education and training (private)	17	83	100
Health care and social assistance (private)	29	71	100
Arts and recreation services	57	43	100
Other services	15	85	100
Total selected industries	49	51	100

COLLECTION DESIGN

9 In order to decrease the statistical reporting load placed on providers while maintaining the range and quality of information available to users of statistical data, the strategy for this survey was to adopt the use of directly collected data from a smaller sample of businesses, in combination with information sourced from the ATO. The frame (from which the direct collect sample was selected) was stratified using information held on the ABSBR. Businesses eligible for selection in the direct collect sample were then selected from the frame using stratified random sampling techniques.

10 Businesses were selected to participate in the survey (the direct collect sample) only if their turnover exceeded a threshold level or the business was identified as being an employing business (based on ATO information) as at the end of the reference period. Turnover thresholds were set for each ANZSIC class so that the contribution of surveyed businesses accounted for 97.5% of total industry class turnover as determined by BAS data.

11 Businesses which met neither of these criteria are referred to as 'micro non-employing businesses'. These businesses were not eligible for selection in the sample. For these units, BAS data were obtained and annualised, then added to the directly collected estimates to produce the statistics in this publication. The total estimated value of annual turnover of micro non-employing businesses in Total selected industries during the 2007-08 reference year, as determined by BAS data, was $53.2b.


ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY

12 The 2007-08 survey continues to use generalised regression estimation, first introduced in the 2006-07 survey. This estimation method enables maximum use of observed linear relationships between data directly collected from businesses in the survey and auxiliary information. When the auxiliary information is strongly correlated with data items collected in a survey, the generalised regression estimation methodology will improve the accuracy of the estimates. The auxiliary variables used in this survey were turnover and wages sourced from BAS data.


PRODUCING ESTIMATES

13 The following diagram illustrates the ways in which Australian businesses contribute to the estimates in this publication.

DATA STREAMING

14 For the purpose of compiling the estimates in this publication, data for businesses as recorded on the ABSBR contribute via one of three categories (or 'streams') in accordance with significance and collection-related characteristics.


Completely enumerated (CE) stream:

15 The CE stream consists of directly collected survey data for those units recorded on the ABSBR as having employment greater than 300, plus additional 'significant' units in the ABSMP and units significant to small state estimates.


Generalised regression (GREG) estimation stream:

16 The GREG stream comprises directly collected data for those sampled units which are not in the CE stream and have turnover, in aggregate, above the bottom 2.5 percentile of BAS sales for that industry. The accuracy of the estimates produced from this data is then improved by using wages and turnover data sourced from businesses' BAS data.


Business Activity Statement (BAS) stream:

17 The BAS stream comprises data for those businesses in the ATOMP whose turnover, in aggregate, is below the bottom 2.5 percentile of BAS sales for that ANZSIC subdivision.

18 Estimates for each of the selected industries were produced by aggregating the contributing data streams.


STATE AND TERRITORY ESTIMATES

19 A small component of the sample survey was not specifically designed to produce state estimates. For these units state data was apportioned utilising BAS data obtained from the ATO. For the remainder of sampled units, a question on the survey form requesting state break ups of employment, wages and salaries, and sales and service income was used.


HISTORICAL ESTIMATES

20 Data collected for 2004-05 and 2005-06 (under ANZSIC93) were updated in the 2006-07 issue of this publication to take account of any revisions to the data since they were originally published in the 2005-06 issue. The data so revised were then mapped to ANZSIC06, and further adjusted to incorporate the scope and methodological changes discussed in the notes for the 2006-07 publication. This process is known as 'bridging' and was used to create the key data items presented in table 1.1 for 2004-05 and 2005-06.