Forms of Employment

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW

The Forms of Employment Survey was conducted for the first time in August 1998. The survey collects information on people employed in a range of situations, such as contractors, employees of labour hire firms and casuals. The survey also provides information on where people working under such arrangements would be classified in the monthly Labour Force Survey.

PURPOSE

The aim of the Forms of Employment Survey is to provide information on some of the key factors relating to the nature of employment arrangements.

SCOPE

This survey is conducted as part of the Monthly Population Survey, which comprises the Labour Force Survey and, in most months, a supplementary survey topic.

SCOPE -- Labour Force Survey

The Labour Force Survey includes all usual residents of Australia¹ aged 15 and over except:

• members of the permanent defence forces;
• certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from census and estimated populations;
• overseas residents in Australia; and
• members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

SCOPE -- Labour Force Supplementary Surveys

In addition to those already excluded from the Labour Force Survey, the following persons are excluded from most supplementary surveys:

• persons living in private dwellings in remote and sparsely settled parts of Australia;
• institutionalised persons; and
• boarding school pupils.

SCOPE - Forms Of Employment

The scope of this survey is restricted to all employed persons aged 15 years and over. The standard scope restrictions for supplementary surveys (see above) also apply to this survey.

COVERAGE - Labour Force Survey

Coverage rules are applied to ensure that each person is associated with only one dwelling, and hence has only one chance of selection. The chance of a person being enumerated at two separate dwellings in the one survey is considered to be negligible. Persons who are away from their usual residence for six weeks or less at the time of interview are enumerated at their usual residence (relevant information may be obtained from other usual residents present at the time of the survey).

DATA DETAIL

Conceptual framework

The conceptual framework used in Australia's Labour Force Survey aligns closely with the standards and guidelines set out in Resolutions of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians. Descriptions of the underlying concepts and structure of Australia's labour force statistics, and the sources and methods used in compiling these estimates, are presented in Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (Cat. no. 6102.0).

The labour force framework classifies the civilian population into three mutually exclusive groups: employed; unemployed; and not in the labour force. The employed and unemployed categories together make up the labour force. The third category (i.e. the residual) represents persons not in the labour force.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes a range of data on employment arrangements collected in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and various supplementary surveys. However, the classifications and definitions used by the ABS are quite broad and do not fully address some of the employment arrangements that are of interest to labour statistics users. The Forms of Employment Survey (FOES) was developed to examine the nature or working arrangements that are not effectively measured by existing classifications and definitions.

Respondents to the FOES were asked a number of questions about the nature of their work relationship with their employer, or with the business in which they worked. A conceptual framework for the presentation of results of the survey was designed around the responses to these questions. This framework differs in a number of fundamental ways from the Status in Employment classification used in the LFS.

In this survey, the main population of interest is employed persons (excluding those working solely for payment in kind, and contributing family workers). This group was further defined into the following employment types:

• employees with paid leave entitlements
• self-identified casuals
• employees without paid leave entitlements who did not identify as casuals
• owner managers of incorporated enterprises
• owner managers of unincorporated enterprises

Data from the survey are published in Forms of Employment, Australia (Cat. no. 6359.0). More detailed estimates are available on request.

Data from the survey relate to persons aged 15-69. Estimates are produced on an original basis only (i.e. not seasonally adjusted) and include:

Socio-demographic information	Sex, age, marital status, relationship in household, family, geographic region, birthplace and year of arrival in Australia. .
Employed persons	Full-time or part-time status, occupation, industry, whether has PAYE tax deducted from earnings, continuous duration with current employer/business, expected future duration with current employer/business, reason for leaving employer/business (if planning to leave), whether earnings vary, hours worked in main job in reference week, status in employment, employment type (employees with leave entitlements, self-identified casuals, other employed persons, owner managers of incorporated enterprises, owner managers of unincorporated enterprises), and whether prefers more or fewer hours of work. .
Labour Force Survey Employees	Sector (public/private), permanent or casual status, whether receives paid holiday leave, whether receives paid sick leave, whether receives long service leave, whether receives superannuation, whether a member of a trade union, and hours paid for in main job.
	.
Employment type: employees with leave entitlements	Whether employment has a set completion date, whether on a fixed term contract, whether expects contract to be renewed (if on a contract), and whether paid by an employment agency. .
Employment type: self-identified casuals	Whether employment has a set completion date, whether on a fixed term contract, whether expects contract to be renewed (if on a contract), whether looked for alternative employment in last three months, whether looked for permanent employment, and whether paid by an employment agency. .
Employment type: other employed persons	Whether undertakes contract work, whether has more than one contract, whether able to subcontract own work, main reason unable to subcontract own work (if unable to do so), whether contract prevents working for multiple clients, whether has control over own working procedures, whether employment has a set completion date, whether on a fixed term contract, whether expects contract to be renewed (if on a contract), whether receives a payslip, and whether paid by an employment agency. .
Employment type: owner managers	Whether has employees, whether undertakes contract work, whether has more than one contract, whether able to subcontract own work, main reason unable to subcontract own work (if unable to do so), whether contract prevents working for multiple clients, whether has control over own working procedures, level of dependence on client, whether draws a wage or salary and whether invoices or bills for own payment (only asked of owner managers of unincorporated enterprises).

Classifications

Demographics: State, Area, Region, Sex, Marital Status, Relationship in Household, Period of Arrival and Age.

Country of Birth: Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC), 1998 (cat. no.1269.0).

Occupation: ASCO Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, Second Edition, 1997 (cat. no.1220.0).

Industry: Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 (cat. no.1292.0).

Other concepts (summary)

Data collected in the survey are compiled according to concepts and definitions outlined in Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods chapter 4 (employment characteristics ), chapter 11 (weekly earnings ), chapter 12 (trade union membership ) and Chapter 15 (socio-demographic information, industry and sector )..

GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
ACT
Part of State Metropolitan
Part of State Extra-Metropolitan

Comments and/or Other Regions

Not all data available for all areas.

COLLECTION FREQUENCY
3 Yearly

Frequency comments

COLLECTION HISTORY

Information on Forms of Employment was first collected in August 1998 and again in November 2001. The topic is expected to be collected again in November 2004.

DATA AVAILABILITY
Yes

Data availability comments