Labour Account Australia, Experimental Estimates methodology

Additional hours sought by underemployed refers to the number of additional hours part-time employed persons would prefer to work and are available for, and the number of hours not worked by full-time employed persons for economic reasons.

Adjustments to employed persons are the additions and deductions made to align the scope of the Labour Force Survey with Australian System of National Accounts residency.

Additions are made for:

• persons working in the permanent defence forces;
• non-residents (short term visitors) living in Australia and employed by Australian resident enterprises; and
• child workers.

Deductions are made for:

• Australian residents living in Australia employed by non-resident enterprises.
   

Adjustments to hours actually worked in all jobs are the additions and deductions made to hours worked to align the scope of the Labour Force Survey with Australian System of National Accounts residency.

Additions are made for hours worked by:

• non-residents (short term visitors) living in Australia and employed by Australian resident enterprises;
• child workers; and
• persons working in the permanent defence forces.

Deductions are made for hours worked by:

• Australian residents living in Australia employed by non-resident enterprises.
   

Available hours of labour supply refers to the total number of hours spent directly on and available to be spent on, and in relation to, productive activities. It is the aggregate of hours actually worked and hours preferred but not worked.

Average hours actually worked per job is the hours actually worked divided by the number of filled jobs.

Average labour cost per hour paid is the total labour cost divided by hours paid for.

Average labour cost per hour worked is the total labour cost divided by hours actually worked in all jobs.

Average labour income per employed person is the total labour income divided by the number of employed persons.

Compensation of Employees is defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an enterprise to an employee in return for work done by the employee (SNA 2008, para 7.5, ASNA 11.6). It is the value of entitlements received by employees from employers for services rendered. It is further classified into two sub components: Wages and salaries and Employers’ social contributions.

Contributing family workers are persons who work without pay in an enterprise operated by a relative.

Employees are persons who work for a public or private employer and receive remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from their employer while working on a commission basis, tips, piece-rates, or payment in kind. Employees are engaged under a contract of service (an employment contract) and take directions from their employer/supervisor/manager/foreman on how work is performed.

Employers’ social contributions are payments by employers which are intended to secure for their employees the entitlement to social benefits should certain events occur, or certain circumstances exist, that may adversely affect their employees’ income or welfare – namely work related accidents and retirement.

Employment related costs to employers relates to other costs attributed to employees, such as training costs and recruitment costs.

Employment subsidies are any government wage subsidies an employer may receive.

Filled jobs refer to all positions of employment that are currently filled (including self-employment). Filled jobs can be measured from either household sources (such as the Labour Force Survey), or business sources (such as the Economic Activity Survey).

Hours actually worked in all jobs includes:

• all time spent directly on, and in relation to, productive activities;
• down time;
• time spent in addition to hours worked during normal periods of work (including overtime);
• time spent at the place of work on activities such as the preparation of the workplace, repairs and maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, and the preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports;
• time spent at the place of work waiting or standing by due to machinery or process breakdown, accident, lack of supplies or power or internet access, etc.; and
• time corresponding to short rest periods (resting time) including tea and coffee breaks or prayer breaks.

Hours actually worked in all jobs excludes:

• hours paid for but not worked such as paid annual leave, public holidays or paid sick leave;
• meal breaks; and
• time spent on travel to and from work when no productive activity for the job is performed (even when paid by the employer).

For multiple job holders, actual hours worked includes the hours worked in all jobs.

Hours paid but not worked refers to hours associated with paid leave, such as annual leave, paid public holidays, paid sick leave and other paid leave.

Hours paid for is the time for which payment has been received for award, standard or agreed hours of work (paid at normal or premium rates, in cash or in kind), regardless of whether the hours were actually worked or not.

Hours paid for:

• includes time paid but not worked such as paid annual leave, paid public holidays and certain absences such as paid sick leave; and
• excludes time worked but not paid by the employer, such as unpaid overtime, and absences that are not paid by the employer, such as unpaid educational leave or maternity leave that is paid through transfers by government from social security systems.

As such, hours paid for will differ from the number of hours actually worked if an employee works more or less hours than their paid hours. Hours paid for will also differ from usual hours in some cases, for example if an employee performs long hours in some weeks to have rostered days or weeks off. Hours paid for is the aggregate of ordinary time hours paid for and overtime hours paid for.

Hours sought but not worked refers to the number of hours a person would prefer to work and is available to work beyond the usual hours they do work. It is the sum of hours sought by unemployed, and additional hours sought by underemployed.

Hours sought by unemployed refers to the number of hours an unemployed person would prefer to work and is available for.

Hours worked but not paid refers to unpaid hours worked. It is the time (hours) worked but not paid for by the employer, such as unpaid overtime, and absences that are not paid by the employer, such as unpaid educational leave or maternity leave that may be paid through transfers by government from social security systems.

A job with job sharing arrangements is a full-time job that is filled by employing two or more people working part-time to share the responsibility and duties of the one position.

A job vacancy is an unfilled job that an employer intends to fill either immediately or in the near future. A job vacancy is considered to exist if an employer has taken concrete steps to find a suitable person to carry out a specific set of tasks and would have recruited (entered into a job contract with) such a person if she/he had been available.

Measures of job vacancies exclude:

• jobs not available for immediate filling;
• jobs for which no recruitment action has been taken;
• jobs of less than one day's duration;
• jobs only available to be filled by internal applicants within an organisation;
• jobs to be filled by employees returning from paid or unpaid leave, or after industrial disputes;
• vacancies for work to be carried out by contractors; and
• jobs for which a person has been appointed but has not yet commenced duty.
   

Labour Account added as a prefix to a data item (e.g. Labour Account main job and Labour Account secondary job) are indicative of statistical estimates made to address scope discrepancies between the principal data sources (such as the household Labour Force Survey) and the conceptual scope of the Australian Labour Account (the SNA 2008 production and residence boundaries). For example, the number of filled jobs reported in the Labour Force Survey is adjusted by adding estimates of jobs held by members of the permanent defence forces, child workers and short-term visa holders, and deducting an estimate of Australian residents employed by non-resident enterprises.

Labour Account employed persons is the sum of all persons engaged by Australian resident enterprises in economic activity within the System of National Accounts (SNA) production boundary.

The Labour Force, also referred to as the currently economically active population, is the aggregate of employed and unemployed persons which gives a measure of the number of people contributing to, or actively looking and immediately available for, the supply of labour at a point in time. Labour Account labour force is the sum of Labour Account employed persons and Labour Force Survey unemployed persons.

Labour Account main job is the main activity carried out by an employed person. In the Australian context, this is the job in which most hours are usually worked. An employed person can only have one main job.

Labour Account secondary job is any job held by an employed person, other than main job. A person can have multiple secondary jobs.

Labour Force Survey employed persons is the sum of all persons, defined as employed in line with ILO guidelines and in ABS official employment statistics (Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, cat. no. 6102.0.55.001).

An employed person must meet the following criteria:

• be aged 15 years and over; and

• be usually resident in Australia (i.e. not a short term visitor intending to stay in Australia for less than 12 months in a 16 month period); and

• not be a member of the permanent defence forces of Australia, a foreign diplomat (or a dependant of a foreign diplomat ) or a member of a foreign military force stationed in Australia (or their dependant); and

• meet at least one of the following criteria during the Labour Force Survey reference week:
   
  • worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (contributing family workers); or
  • worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind, in a job or business or on a farm (Employees, Owner-Managers of Incorporated Enterprises (OMIEs), Self-employed persons (Owner-Managers of Unincorporated Enterprises (OMUEs)) and contributing family workers); or
  • were owner managers who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work; or
  • had a job but were not at work and were:
    • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week; or
    • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week; or
    • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement; or
    • on strike or locked out; or
    • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job.

Members of the permanent defence forces, certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments customarily excluded from census and estimated population counts, overseas residents in Australia, and members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependents) stationed in Australia are excluded from the Labour Force Survey.

Labour Force Survey main job is the number of main jobs held by members of the usually resident civilian population aged 15 years and over. This is the official estimate of the number of main jobs derived from data collected in the household Labour Force Survey and published in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).

Labour Force Survey not in the labour force comprises all persons aged 15 years and over who are neither employed nor unemployed. They include people who perform home duties or care for children, were retired, voluntarily inactive and those permanently unable to work. Not all people who are classified as not in the labour force are voluntarily economically inactive; some want to work but are classified as not in the labour force because they do not satisfy the criteria for unemployment (active job search and availability to start work).

Labour Force Survey secondary job is the number of secondary jobs held by members of the usually resident civilian population aged 15 years and over. This is the official estimate of the number of secondary jobs derived from data collected in the household Labour Force Survey.

Labour Force Survey underemployed persons reflects insufficient hours of work and where a person is willing and available to engage in additional hours of employment. International guidelines recognise underemployment in two forms: time related underemployment (persons who would prefer more hours) and inadequate employment situations, which represents insufficient use of skills and experience; inadequate income; and excessive hours.

Time related underemployed persons refer to part-time employed persons who wanted to work more hours and were available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the four weeks subsequent to the survey; or persons employed full-time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons. It is assumed that these people wanted to work full-time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.

For now, the Australian Labour Account will only include measures of time related underemployment.

Labour Force Survey underutilised persons encapsulates both unemployment and underemployment, and provides more comprehensive information on the state of labour market and measures the extent to which all available labour force resources are not being fully used in the economy.

Labour Force unemployed persons refers to people in the civilian usually resident population aged 15 years and over who are without work, actively seeking work and currently available for work. All three conditions must be satisfied for a person to be considered unemployed. For people waiting to start a new job they have already obtained, the active job search criterion is waived.

Labour income from self-employment refers to the employment related income received by household members from self-employment. It consists of all payments and benefits in cash, kind or services, which are received, over a given reference period, by individuals for themselves or in respect of their family members, by virtue of their involvement in current or former self-employment jobs.

Ordinary time hours paid for includes stand-by or reporting time hours which are part of standard hours of work, and hours of paid annual leave, paid sick leave and long service leave taken during the reference period. Ordinary time hours paid for at penalty rates (e.g. for shift work) are not converted to their ordinary time equivalent. This definition excludes any hours unpaid and overtime hours.

Owner-Managers of Incorporated Enterprises (OMIEs) are persons who operate their own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.

Self-employed (Owner-Managers of Unincorporated Enterprises (OMUEs)) are persons who operate their own unincorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.

Paid overtime, otherwise known as overtime hours paid for, represents hours paid for in excess of award, standard or agreed hours of work, at both standard and penalty rates.

Payroll tax includes taxes payable by the employer on the wage and salary bill.

Residual in the Labour Payments quadrant refers to the difference between ‘total labour income’ and ‘total labour costs’. This is not a statistical discrepancy, and the two measures are similar but not conceptually identical.

Residual in the Labour Volume quadrant refers to the difference between ‘hours paid for’ and ‘hours worked’. This is not defined as a statistical discrepancy as there remains a data gap in terms of unpaid hours worked.

This residual can provide an insight into labour market conditions. An industry in which the gap between hours paid for and hours worked is below the average for the economy as a whole is likely to be indicative of more casual employment arrangements, in which employees have less access to benefits such as paid recreation and sick leave. A reduction over time in the gap between hours paid for and hours worked could signal a tightening of labour market conditions or an increase in casualisation.

The secondary employment adjustment calculates the number of employed people who hold secondary jobs in each industry. It is calculated by excluding multiple job holding within the same industry, from the total number of filled jobs.

The statistical discrepancy is equal to filled jobs from the demand side less filled jobs from the supply side, after addressing scope discrepancies. These two measures are, in principle, the same. The statistical discrepancy reflects measurement error associated with the source data.

Total jobs refers to all positions of employment that are currently filled, or are vacant and could be filled. It is the aggregate of the number of filled jobs and the number of job vacancies.

Total labour costs refers to all costs incurred by the employer in the employment of labour. It is further classified into two sub components: Compensation of employees and other labour related costs to employers.

Total labour income refers to the employment related income received by households from all paid employment. It consists of all payments and benefits in cash, kind or services, which are received, over a given reference period, by individuals for themselves or in respect of their family members, by virtue of their involvement in current or former paid employment jobs.

Wages and salaries (internationally referred to as earnings) relates to regular and irregular remuneration in cash and in kind paid to employees for time worked or work done together with remuneration for time not worked, such as annual vacation and other paid leave or holidays (ASNA 11.8).

Wages and salaries is further classified into two categories: wages and salaries paid in cash, and wages and salaries paid in kind. Conceptually wages and salaries excludes severance and termination pay, which, along with, sick leave payments; and payments for other forms of leave other than annual leave and long service leave should be classified as employers' social contributions as recommended by the SNA 2008. However, as data providers in Australia are unable to consistently differentiate between these various types of severance and leave payments, and other wage and salary payments, these payments are included in the Australian System of National Account estimates of wages and salaries. Fringe benefits taxes which are payable on income in kind provided to employees are included as part of wages and salaries and also included in income taxes payable by households.

Payments to members of the defence forces consist of salaries and allowances, attendance pay and the value of food, clothing, and travel supplied to permanent members, reserves and cadets. Deferred pay is included but war gratuities, which are regarded as social assistance benefits, are not.

Wages and salaries also include changes in provisions for future employee entitlements, such as provisions for long service leave.

Wages and salaries paid include the values of any social contributions (e.g. to superannuation funds), income taxes, etc., payable by the employee even if withheld by the employer for administrative convenience, such as direct payment to a superannuation fund or the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Also included are penalty payments (e.g. overtime, hazardous work allowances), supplementary allowances such as housing and meal allowances (unless paid as social benefits), holiday pay, payment while on sick leave, bonuses, and commissions, tips and gratuities paid directly to the employee by a third party.

Wages and Salaries paid in kind covers the cost to an employer of goods and services which are provided to the employee, or to another member of the employee's household, free of charge or at a substantial discount, and which are clearly of benefit to the employee as a consumer. Examples include meals, housing, uniforms that can be worn away from work, vehicles available for personal use, goods and services produced by the employer enterprise, recreational facilities, transportation, car parking, child care, low interest loans and stock options. Some of these benefits may appear more like intermediate consumption, but are included in compensation of employees because, even though they are paid to attract employees, they are benefits that employees would often have to provide themselves.

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

This publication contains experimental estimates of the Australian Labour Account. The Australian Labour Account provides a conceptual framework through which existing labour market data from different sources can be confronted and integrated, with the aim of producing a coherent and consistent set of aggregate labour market statistics.

The Australian Labour Account is macro-economic in scope, building on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) fundamentals and expanding them to ensure consistency with the Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA). It aims to extend the analytical capacity of national accounts data by providing a labour-specific lens.

The Australian Labour Account produces a set of statistical tables of employment related data that are consistent with the ASNA.

It is intended that future releases of the annual Australian Labour Account will be published within twelve months of the end of the reference period.

Different data sources have been used in compiling the four quadrants of the Australian Labour Account. In general, the same data sources have been used to compile both quarterly and annual labour account estimates. Quarterly survey estimates have also been benchmarked to annual survey estimates where possible.

Australian Labour Account data at an industry level are derived where possible from data classified by industry reported in both business and household surveys. Where Australian Labour Account data at an industry level are not reported in surveys, the industry detail has been modelled using alternative sources.

The Australian Labour Account uses both published and unpublished data from various sources. These are detailed in Appendix 2 of the Concepts, Sources and Methods manual. Where unpublished data sources are referenced, for example using an ABS catalogue number, this is intended to provide background information relating to the underlying survey data only. It is not intended that users be able to fully replicate published Australian Labour Account data.

After adjusting for conceptual and scope differences between data sources, a statistical discrepancy remains between the number of filled jobs as reported by businesses and the number of filled jobs as reported by households.

These discrepancies represent the cumulative impact of data source error, including survey error, and modelling error. Survey error includes both sampling error and non-sampling error. Sampling error is the predictable variability arising from the use of samples, rather than a complete enumeration of the populations of enterprises and households. Non-sampling error is all other error in the estimate, and includes error arising from the reliability of the survey population and related benchmark data and error made by respondents in reporting data. Further information on these issues can be found in the Concepts, Sources and Methods manual.

There are currently no international standards regarding the production of a labour account, however a four step process has been documented by the ILO and was followed (to varying degrees) by the National Statistical Organisations in Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland in compiling their own labour accounts. The ILO process has been used as a guide in compiling the Australian Labour Account.

The ILO describes two approaches to compiling a labour account: a cross-sectional approach involving confrontation and reconciliation of key labour market measures, and a longitudinal approach which incorporates changes to population and labour force via births, deaths, and net migration, and includes measures such as duration of employment. The Australian Labour Account focuses on the cross-sectional approach (since this is the approach that supports data confrontation and reconciliation), and also provides a time-series dimension.

The development of an annual Australian Labour Account, and in particular a future quarterly labour account dis-aggregated by industry division, provides an opportunity to significantly improve the quality of aggregates such as the number of jobs occupied within each industry, measures of hours worked, and labour productivity growth.

Contained within this release are Data Cubes. A detailed Concepts, Sources and Methods manual, Explanatory Notes and a Glossary are also included providing information on the terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics.

• Australian Labour Account: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6150.0)
   

Experimental Estimates for the Australian Labour Account, 2010–11 to 2015–16 (cat no. 6150.0.55.001) is released electronically via the ABS website as Data Cubes in spreadsheet format.

The ABS welcomes comments from users on the new methodologies and the usefulness of the resulting estimates for their analytical purposes. If you are interested in contributing to the ABS review, please contact Household Income and Labour Market director on 02 6252 7988 or labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.