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GOVERNMENT/NON-GOVERNMENT EMPLOYER


JUSTIFICATION

Data on government/non-government employer (previously a component of institutional sector) are needed for both small geographic areas and for small population groups so that the relative importance of government sector activity can be assessed.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

A question on institutional sector has been included in one form or another in all Censuses. The industry sector was coded from the name of the business. In the 1996 and 2001 Censuses, institutional sector was used in conjunction with other questions to code Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders participating in Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP).

For the 2006 Census, institutional sector was divided into two separate topics: government/non-government employer and CDEP participation. Government/non-government employer is obtained from the employer's business name.

USER REQUIREMENTS

Information about whether an employer is in the government or private sector is used in the analysis of employment by the various tiers of government and non-government organisations.

AVAILABILITY OF NON-CENSUS DATA

A range of labour business surveys and other ABS collections include data related to levels of government or private sector at the national, state and regional level.

Only a small number of household surveys contain sector of main job as a data item. These are:

• the Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership Survey (results released annually in Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership, Australia, cat. no. 6310.0)
• the six-yearly Survey of Employment Arrangements, Retirement and Superannuation (results released in Employment Arrangements and Superannuation, Australia, cat. no. 6361.0).