USING THE BLD CURF


ABOUT THE MICRODATA

The 2006-07 to 20010-11 BLD CURF enables users to manipulate the data and perform both point-in-time and longitudinal unit record analysis.

The BLD microdata are released under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, which has provision for the release of data in the form of unit records where the information is not likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation. Accordingly, there are no names or addresses of survey respondents on the BLD CURF, and other steps have been taken to protect the confidentiality of respondents - for further information see the chapter, About the Business Longitudinal Database.

Steps to confidentialise the data made available on the BLD CURF are designed to ensure the integrity of the dataset and optimise its content, while maintaining the confidentiality of respondents. Intending users should ensure that the data they require, at the level of detail they require, are available on the BLD CURF. The Data Item List for the BLD CURF is provided in Excel Spreadsheet format from the Downloads tab for this product.


USING THE INDICATIVE ITEMS

The BLD CURF includes several indicative items which will assist users in their analysis. For background information about these see the chapter, About the Business Longitudinal Database.

Design Weight (DWEIGHT): The sample weight at time of selection.

ANZSIC 2006 Division (DIV06)

1 = Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
2 = Mining
3 = Manufacturing
5 = Construction
6 = Wholesale Trade
7 = Retail Trade
8 = Accommodation and Food Services
9 = Transport, Postal and Warehousing
10 = Information Media and Telecommunications
12 = Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services
13 = Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
14 = Administration and Support Services
18 = Arts and Recreation Services
19 = Other Services

Food industry sample indicator (FIS)

0 = No
1 = Yes

Type Of Legal Organisation (TOLO)

1 = Registered Company
2 = Sole Proprietor
3 = Partnership
4 = Trust; other unincorporated entities

Size (based on Derived Size Benchmark employment) (SIZE)

0 = Non-employer
1 = DSB greater than or equal to 0, to less than 5 persons
2 = DSB greater than or equal to 5 persons to less than 20 persons
3 = DSB greater than or equal to 20 persons to less than 200 persons

Unit live status (STATUS)

1 = Normal Unit
2 = Nils (temporary, permanent)
3 = Death (part-period)
4 = Death (full-period)
5 = Out of scope
6 = Outstanding

Stratum

The stratum is not included in the BLD CURF but can be recreated by using the Size, Industry Division and Food Industry Sample indicator variables. For counts of these combinations of indicators see the chapter, About the Business Longitudinal Database.


DATA ITEM NAMING CONVENTION

Each data item has been assigned a variable name, for example, location (Number of locations operated); homebus (home based business).


SPECIAL CODES

Special codes are assigned to variables in the following circumstances:

999999999 = missing due to respondent omission
88888888 = missing due to sequencing
7777777 = ticked more than one box
55555 = question not asked this year

Caution: Users should ensure that they do not inadvertently use the missing value code as a numeric value. This will ensure that these missing value codes do not incorrectly contribute to BLD CURF usage or outputs.


SELECTED BCS DATA ITEMS - CONSIDERATIONS FOR BLD CURF USERS

When using the following set of BCS (i.e. directly collected) data items, users should take the information provided here into consideration. BLD CURF users are able to access copies of BCS forms upon request.

Employment (Variables emptotal, casuals, empft, empprop, empsaldr and empoth)

The reference period for these items is the last pay period ending in June of the relevant reference year. For example, for the 2006-07 reference year, the last pay period in June 2007 is used to collect these data. These data items do not measure employment during the reference year and it is possible for a business that normally has employees to have no employees in the last pay period. Users should also be aware that while the business may have initially been selected in a non-employing stratum (i.e. did not have an ITW role when included in the ABSBR), it is possible for the business to report employees in the first or any subsequent survey iteration.

For confidentiality reasons, reported employment data are presented in continuous values then top coded into ranges. Every effort is made to ensure that these data are of the highest quality.

Years of operation, current owner and regardless of changes in ownership (Variables busow1yr, busownyr, busop1yr and busopyr)

While the questions are asked annually, these data are only quality assured in the first year that the business is included in its respective panel. For this reason, data for these items in subsequent survey periods has been removed from the BLD CURF.

Comparisons to the previous year (Variables compsogs, compprts, compprof, compprod, compjobs, compexp, compcont, comptra, compit and compsoc)

For these items, respondents are asked to report if there had been changes in "income from sales of goods or services", "range of goods or services offered", "profitability", "productivity", "total number of jobs or positions", "export markets targeted", contracting out work activities or outsourcing", "structured/ formal training for employees", "expenditure on Information Technology", "social contributions". These data are presented as self-reported by the respondent and no effort is made to confront the veracity of the responses with other data items. For example, checks are not undertaken to compare an actual increase in the value of BAS total sales with a reported increase in "income from sales of goods or services" ticked as a response to this question.

Debt and equity finance topic (Variables finance, dtfin_ob, eqfin_ob, finbussu, fincashf, finrepit, finrepot, finupgri, finupgro, finprchi, finprcho, finprcha, finexpan, finnewgo, finother and finothr)

For confidentiality reasons, the data items included in the BLD CURF for this topic have been reduced from the set originally collected. Excluded from the BLD CURF are responses for whether debt or equity finance sought was not obtained or was still in progress.

Main source of income from the sales of goods and services (Variables sogsgovt, sogslarg, sogssmal, sogsgenp and sogsover)

This question asks the respondent to identify, by ticking one box only, the main source of income from sales of goods and services. The respondent can choose from a specified list. In practice, a small number of respondents found it difficult to report one main source of income only, i.e. the income was equally split between two or more of the response options. As these responses are valid, in the BLD CURF this item has been treated as "tick all that apply". The vast majority of businesses included in the BLD CURF only show one response for this item.

Skills (Variables skusceng, skuscsci, skuscitp, skuscits, skusctra, skuscmac, skuscmar, skuscpro, skuscbus, skuscfin, skuscna, skdfceng, skdfcsci, skdfcitp, skdfcits, skdfctra, skdfcmac, skdfcmar, skdfcpro, skdfcbus, skdfcfin, skdfcna )

These questions relate to skills used and skills shortages or deficiencies in undertaking core business activities, whereas in previous panels these skills questions were related to business innovation.


HOW TO DERIVE ABS INNOVATION INDICATORS

In releasing Innovation statistics, the ABS produces two main indicators: proportion of innovating businesses and proportion of innovation-active businesses. The derived items used to produce these indicators have not been included in the BLD CURF. However, users may derive these ABS innovation indicators using the following:

Innovating businesses = yes (value=1) to any of (d_gsnewy, d_opnewy, d_omnewy, d_manewy).

Innovation-active businesses = yes (value=1) to any of (d_gsnewy, d_opnewy, d_omnewy, d_manewy, d_inaban, d_ininco).