Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia methodology

A register of all Australian businesses and organisations maintained by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the purpose of producing statistical frames and business demography outputs. It contains identifying and classificatory data for each business and organisation.

Information to populate the ABS Business Register is largely sourced from the Australian Business Register.

The ABS Business Register consists of two subpopulations, the profiled population and the non-profiled population. The ABS Business Register uses an economic units model to describe the characteristics of businesses and the structural relationships between related businesses.

A unique identifier. To be entitled to an Australian Business Number (ABN), an organisation must be one or more of the following:

• a company registered under the Corporations Act 2001
• an entity carrying on an enterprise in Australia
• a government entity
• a non-profit sub-entity for Goods and Services Tax purposes
• a superannuation fund.
   

A non-resident entity may be entitled to an ABN if they are carrying on an enterprise in Australia and/or, in the course of carrying on an enterprise, the entity makes sales that are connected with Australia.

The data store containing details about businesses and organisations that have registered for an Australian Business Number. More information can be found on the ABR website.

Commencement and termination dates associated with each job as reported through Single Touch Payroll.

Persons who work for a private or public sector employer, where the employee has received payment in the reference week through Single Touch Payroll (STP) enabled software and reported to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

A relationship between an employed person and their employing enterprise, where the employee has received a payment in the reference week through STP-enabled software and reported to the ATO.

An organisation with an Australian Business Number that provides employment income to one or more people, and reports through the ATO STP system.

See Statistical area entries. For more information, see the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 – Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001).

A homogenous grouping of economic activities undertaken to produce goods and services. The Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (cat. no. 1292.0) is used to classify an entity to an industry based on its dominant activity.

The broadest grouping of industries within the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification. The main purpose of the industry division level is to provide a limited number of categories, which give a broad overall picture of the economy. There are 19 mutually exclusive divisions. For more information see the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (cat. no. 1292.0).

See employee job.

Statistic is not able to be published. This can be to protect the confidentiality of data providers or to prevent misinterpretation of statistics due to poor quality.

A person who operates their own unincorporated enterprise, which does not possess a separate legal identity to that of its owner(s), or engages independently in a profession or trade.

OMUEs can also be referred to as self-employed. Owner managers of unincorporated enterprises are not included in these estimates as they are not in scope of STP-enabled software reporting to the ATO.

Unincorporated enterprises are further defined in the Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (cat. no. 1218.0).

The Single Touch Payroll (STP) system sends taxation and superannuation information from a business' STP-enabled payroll or accounting software to the ATO as a business runs its payroll.

The self reported sex of a person as recorded by the ATO. Binary coding to female and not female is undertaken for privacy and confidentiality purposes.

Statistical area level 4 (SA4) regions are specifically designed to reflect labour markets within each state and territory within population limits. In regional areas, SA4s tend to have lower populations (100,000 to 300,000), while in metropolitan areas, SA4s tend to have larger populations (300,000 to 500,000).

The statistical unit for more significant and diverse businesses in the profiled population. A type of activity unit (TAU) is a constructed unit that can practically group and report on homogenous production activities at the industry sub-division level.

In this publication, the TAU is used to represent employers in the profiled population.

All legal entities on the ABS Business Register are classified according to their type of legal organisation, of which there are three types:

• incorporated private sector entities
• unincorporated private sector entities
• public sector entities.
   

The type of legal organisation indicates whether a business is part of the private or public sector and the type of ownership structure. For more information see the Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (cat. no. 1218.0).

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.

These estimates use Single Touch Payroll (STP) data provided to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) by businesses with STP-enabled payroll or accounting software each time the business runs its payroll.

STP data is supplied by the ATO to the ABS under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, which requires that such data is only used for the purposes of administering the Census and Statistics Act 1905. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is made within the context of using the data for statistical purposes, and is not related to the ability of the data to support the ATO's core operational requirements.

These estimates also include Australian Business Register (ABR) data supplied by the Registrar to the ABS under A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999, which requires that such data is only used for the purpose of carrying out functions of the ABS. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes, and is not related to the ability of the data to support the ABR’s core operational requirements.

Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of this data have been adhered to. In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been confidentialised to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation.

All personal information is handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988.

These estimates provide indicative weekly information on the economic impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus on employees, including changes in employee jobs, changes in wages and changes in average weekly wage per job.

The scope of this data includes all employee jobs reported to the ATO through STP. As at 6 April 2020, approximately 99% of substantial employers (those with 20 or more employees) are reporting through STP. Small employers (those with 19 or less employees) begun transitioning to STP on 1 July 2019 and approximately 71% are currently reporting through STP. As a result, not all jobs in the Australian labour market are captured in these estimates.

Data is presented at the national level, state and territory level, and by the 19 Australia and New Zealand Standard Industry Classifications (ANZSIC) divisions.

The ABS receives tax data from the ATO on a weekly basis. Estimates are published with a 17 day time lag to the end of the reference week. While estimates are published fortnightly, weekly data is available within the release.

Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia is subject to the following sources of error:

• Conceptual misalignment. The Australian tax system is purpose-built and complex, and in some cases it is difficult to determine how a particular STP item should be used to describe impact on employee jobs and wages and in some cases the item can be a partial conceptual match. While all care is taken, some income items are subject to this type of validity error. Coherence with other sources indicates that this has a low impact on aggregate series.
• Measurement error. This is likely to be present in both person and business information used. Most measurement error is unable to be determined or corrected; however, coherence with other similar statistics demonstrates that this has a low impact on aggregate series.
• Incomplete information. While the majority of large employers are already reporting through STP, many smaller businesses are still in the process of transitioning to STP. As at 6 April 2020, approximately 99% of substantial employers (20 or more employees) and 71% of small employers (19 or less employees) are reporting through STP. Payment data extracted from the STP system each week is incomplete as businesses have different payment frequencies. For example, a business with a fortnightly payroll will only provide STP data every second week. An imputation method is used to account for differing reporting patterns. Owner manager of unincorporated enterprises are also not included in these estimates because they are not in scope of STP-enabled software reporting to the ATO.
   

The data underlying Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia is revised for each release, as new business reported data becomes available.

There are differences between Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia estimates and similar statistics produced by the ABS. When compared to other ABS sources, the change in employee jobs, change in wages paid and change in average weekly wage per job in these estimates may differ due to:

• differences in the concepts, scope and methodology used in Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia and those used in other household and business surveys.
• Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia contains a combination of administrative data collected for taxation purposes from businesses, whereas other ABS data sources are compiled for the explicit purpose of producing statistics.
• unreported cash in hand payments, which are excluded from Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia but may be included in household and business surveys.
• Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages including information relating a reference week, rather than a particular point in time.

Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages provides a view of jobs, whereas the Labour Force survey presents a view of employed persons. The difference being those people who hold more than one job at a time. The ABS estimates there are around 1 million secondary jobs in the economy.

Employee job movements reference all employee jobs identified within the reference period and therefore don't reflect a single point-in-time measure. The explanatory notes and glossary for this publication provide further information that can help to interpret these statistics.

For more information about Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia, please contact us online or phone us on 1300 135 070.