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CHAPTER 21.7. LABOUR MOBILITY


INTRODUCTION

21.7.1 The Labour Mobility survey provides detailed information about people who, over a twelve month period, either had a change of employer/business in their main job, or had some change in work with their current employer/business for whom they had worked for one year or more. The survey is the only source of data on labour force mobility over a twelve month period and is a major source of data for analysing the dynamic nature of the labour market.

21.7.2 The survey was first conducted in November 1972, and since February 1992 has been conducted every two years. The most recent survey was conducted in February 2012.

21.7.3 This section describes only those aspects of the methodology that are unique to this survey, and should be used in conjunction with the overview part of this chapter, which outlines the survey methodology used in supplementary surveys.


SURVEY OUTPUT

21.7.4 Data are published in Labour Mobility, Australia (cat. no. 6209.0) and are available in a Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF). For more information on the CURF, see Microdata: Labour Force Survey and Labour Mobility, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0.30.004). More detailed data are available on request.

21.7.5 Estimates are produced on an original basis only (i.e. not seasonally adjusted) and include:

Socio-demographic information

State or territory of usual residence, area of usual residence, region of usual residence, sex, marital status, relationship in household, country of birth and period of arrival, age and educational attainment.

Employment characteristics (at survey reference date)

Full-time or part-time status, occupation, industry, status in employment, hours actually worked, hours usually worked and employment type, whether had paid leave entitlements, duration with current employer/business.

Employment characteristics (12 months prior to survey reference date)

Full-time or part-time status, occupation, industry, status in employment, hours actually worked, hours usually worked and employment type, whether had paid leave entitlements, duration with current employer/business.

Persons who worked at some time during the year

Number of employers or businesses during the year, changes in work during the year, whether had a previous employer/business during the year.

Employees (excluding owner managers of incorporated enterprises) who had worked with their current employer for one year or more

Whether changed occupation with current employer in the last 12 months, whether changed usual hours worked with current employer in the last 12 months, previous occupation with current employer/business, previous usual hours worked with current employer, whether promoted with current employer/business in the last 12 months, whether transferred with current employer/business in the last 12 months, whether promoted and/or transferred with current employer/business in the last 12 months.

Persons who ceased a job during the year

Reason for ceasing last job, usual hours worked in last job, employment type in last job, duration of last job, when began last job, occupation of last job, industry of last job, whether entitled to paid sick leave in last job, whether entitled to paid holiday leave in last job, and whether had paid leave entitlements in last job.

21.7.6 Data collected in the survey are compiled according to concepts and definitions outlined in Chapter 4 (Employment Measures and Classifications) and Chapter 16 (Other Classifications used in Labour Statistics).


SCOPE

21.7.7 The scope of this survey is restricted to persons aged 15 years and over. The standard scope restrictions for supplementary surveys outlined in the overview part of Chapter 21 (Labour Force Supplementary Surveys) also apply to this survey.


DATA COMPARABILITY OVER TIME

21.7.8 In order to provide a high degree of consistency and comparability over time, changes to survey methods, survey concepts, data item definitions, frequency of collection, and analysis methods are made as infrequently as possible. Over the time the survey has been conducted, there have been some changes to the scope and sample size. These changes led to different standard errors for the survey over time. The effect on estimates of the change in scope is considered to have been small. Changes affecting the Labour Force Survey may also affect this survey. Such changes are outlined in Chapter 20 (Labour Force Survey) and are therefore not repeated here. Key survey specific changes are outlined below.

1972
Initial survey conducted (November).
Preliminary data published in Labour Mobility, Preliminary (Ref. no. 6.34) and final data in Labour Mobility (Ref. no. 6.43)
Survey reference period: preceding calendar year.
Sample size restricted to three-quarters of the Labour Force Survey sample.
Scope restricted to persons aged 15-69 years.

1975
Survey changed to February.

1979
Annual collection commenced.
Catalogue numbers replaced reference numbers: cat. no. 6208.0 (preliminary data) and cat. no. 6209.0 (final data).

1981
Change to survey reference period: beginning of February in the previous year to the end of the reference week.
Reasons for leaving job collected only from persons who stated they changed jobs (previously asked of all persons leaving a job).
For persons who changed jobs during the reference period, data collected about current job and first job held during the reference period (previously asked about current job and previous job held).

1983
Change to survey reference period: 52 weeks to the end of the week prior to interview.

1988
Preliminary publication discontinued.

1989
Sample size reduced to one-half of the Labour Force Survey sample.

1990
Persons aged 70 years and over excluded from the scope of the survey.
Sample size increased to full Labour Force Survey sample.

1992
Annual collection ceased - replaced by biennial collection.

1996
Sample restricted to no more than seven-eighths of the Labour Force Survey sample.

1998
Persons living in remote and sparsely settled areas are excluded from scope.
Historical estimates of the number and proportion of persons who were job mobile for the periods 1990 to 1996 were revised in the 1998 publication.

2006
The scope of the survey was expanded to include all people aged 15 years and over (previously ages 15 to 69 years).
New data items were introduced to provide information on people who had worked with their current employer/business for one year or more, and had some change in their work with their current employer/business in the last 12 months. Additional data items collected for these populations include: whether promoted and/or transferred; whether changed usual hours worked; whether changed occupation; whether entitled to paid holiday/sick leave entitlements; and employment type.
The following data items were excluded from the survey: number of changes in locality during the year; state or territory of usual residence 12 months prior to survey date; change of state or territory; and, reasons for changing locality.

2008
Occupation data classified according to the ANZSCO First Edition, 2006 (cat. no. 1220.0) and industry data classified according to the ANZSIC 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0). This introduction of ANZSCO and ANZSIC mean that data relating to change in occupation and industry are not comparable with previous years.