Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia methodology

Non-sampling error may occur in any collection, whether it is based on a sample or a full count such as a census. Sources of non-sampling error include non-response, errors in reporting by respondents or recording of answers by interviewers and errors in coding and processing data. Every effort is made to reduce non-sampling error by careful design and testing of questionnaires, training and supervision of interviewers, and extensive editing and quality control procedures at all stages of data processing.

Standard errors can be calculated using the estimates (counts or percentages) and the corresponding RSEs. Since the RSE is obtained by expressing the standard error as a percentage of the estimate, recalculating the standard error is obtained by multiplying the estimate by the RSE. 

People who were born in 1951 or earlier are eligible for the Australian age pension at 65 years

People who were born from 1952 to 1956 are eligible for the Australian age pension at ages between 65 years and 66 years and 6 months. 

People who were born in 1957 or later are eligible for the Australian age pension at 67 years.

All people aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind, in a job or business or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers), or
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers), or
• were employees who 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
  • 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
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
  • on strike or locked out
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job; or
• were owner managers who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

An employed person who does not operate their own incorporated or unincorporated enterprise. An employee works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, on a commission basis with a retainer, tips, piece-rates, or payment in kind.

Employees who were entitled to either paid sick leave or paid holiday leave (or both).

Employees who were not entitled to, or did not know whether they were entitled to, paid sick and paid holiday leave.

Employed people who usually work 35 hours or more a week in all jobs.

Funded entirely from superannuation or any other income source, excluding any form of a government pension or allowance.

Income support payments from government to people under social security and related government programs. Included are pensions and allowances received by aged, disabled, unemployed and sick people, families and children, veterans and their survivors, and study allowances for students. Payments made by overseas governments as well as the Australian government are included.

People who are not in the labour force or are unemployed and have previously worked. Only people who have previously worked before can be classified as retired.

Prior to 2014-15, it was required that people previously worked in a job for at least 2 weeks. The definition now only requires people to have previously worked in a job for any duration, including jobs that lasted for less than 2 weeks. This change is to remain consistent with changes that were introduced to the LFS questionnaire in July 2014 regarding duration of job search.

People who are not in the labour force or are unemployed looking for work and have never worked before. Only people who have previously worked can be classified as Retired.

An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that undertake similar economic activities to produce goods or services. In this publication, industry refers to ANZSIC Division as classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0).

People who indicated that they intended to give up all labour force activity in the future, including both working and looking for work.

The civilian population can be split into two mutually exclusive groups: the labour force (employed and unemployed people) and not in the labour force.

Refers to the last job worked within the last 20 years.

People who voluntarily left their last job to retire. Includes people who reached the retirement age, were eligible for superannuation or pension, or who retired from their own job to coincide with their partner's retirement.

A person with a long-term health condition is anyone who reported one or more of the following conditions:

• Arthritis or osteoporosis
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Mental health condition
• Long-term injury
• Other long-term condition

People who involuntarily lost their last job due to reasons of retrenchment, redundancy, dismissal, or permanently stood down because no work was available. Also includes self-employed owner managers whose own business closed down for economic reasons. 

People who involuntarily lost their last job due to own illness or injury. Does not include people who left their last job to care for an ill, disabled or elderly person. 

A single one-off payment from a superannuation (super) scheme, rather than a series of regular payments over time. Access to lump sum payments from superannuation schemes are generally limited to retirement or meeting a certain age criteria, but there are circumstances where super can be released early, such as severe financial hardship or compassionate grounds. 

The job in which most hours were usually worked.

People who indicated that they never intend to give up all labour force activity in the future.

People who are either unemployed or not in the labour force.

People aged 45 years and over who have, at some time, worked and were not retired from the labour force. That is, either employed, unemployed or not in the labour force and intend to continue working or look for, or take up, work in the future.

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation which are grouped together for the purposes of classification. In this publication, occupation refers to Major Group and Sub-Major Group as defined by ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.2 (cat. no. 1220.0).

People who work in their own incorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity which is registered as a separate legal entity to its members or owners (also known as a limited liability company). These people are sometimes classified as employees. They can work alone or in a business with employees.

People who operate their own unincorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity in which the owner and the business are legally inseparable, so that the owner is liable for any business debts that are incurred. Includes those engaged independently in a trade or profession. They can work alone or in a business with employees.

Funded by government pension or allowance and at least one other income source.

Employed people who usually work less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs).

People who were classified as being in the labour force, that is, either employed or unemployed.

People who were not classified as employed or unemployed.

Includes hospital or extras cover only. People who reported ambulance cover only, or other health arrangements (eg Department of Veteran Affairs) are not considered to have private health insurance.

The relationship of people who live in the same household.

People who had previously worked and had retired from work or looking for work, and did not intend to look for, or take up, work in the future.

Since 2014-15, the definition of retirement no longer requires people to have previously worked in a job for at least 2 weeks. The definition now only requires people to have previously worked in a job for any duration, including jobs that lasted for less than 2 weeks. This change was done to remain consistent with changes that were made to the LFS questionnaire in July 2014 regarding duration of job search.

Classifies employed persons according to the following categories on the basis of their current job:

• Employees
  • with paid leave entitlements
  • without paid leave entitlements
• Owner managers with employees (employer)
  • Owner manager of incorporated enterprise with employees
  • Owner manager of unincorporated enterprise with employees
• Owner managers without employees (own account worker)
  • Owner manager of incorporated enterprise without employees
  • Owner manager of unincorporated enterprise without employees
• Contributing family workers.

Any fund, association or organisation set up for the purpose of providing financial cover for members when they retire from work. For this survey, information about superannuation scheme membership was collected if the respondent indicated that contributions had been made to a scheme. Contributions could either have been made by the respondent, the respondent's partner or the respondent's employer.

People who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and;
• were available for work in the reference week; or
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

People who responded (or whose response had been recorded by proxy from the responsible adult responding on behalf of the household) that they were "permanently unable to work" when answering the LFS question "Did you do any work at all in a job, business or farm (last week)?"

Since 1994, people who had been classified as "permanently unable to work" from the LFS questionnaire are not excluded from the Retirement and Retirement Intentions survey.

Usual hours of work refers to a typical period rather than the hours worked in a specified reference period. The concept of usual hours applies both to people at work and to people temporarily absent from work, and is defined as the hours worked during a typical week or day. Actual hours worked (for a specific reference period) may differ from usual hours worked due to illness, vacation, strike, overtime work, a change of job, or similar reasons. It is possible for a person to usually not work any hours in a typical week (usually work 0 hours) but be classified as employed based on the hours worked during the specific reference period.

• The Excel spreadsheets in Data downloads have been redesigned to incorporate time series data back to 2014-15, with optional state and territory and populations of interest breakdowns.
• Estimates were rebenchmarked to a 12-month average of population estimates from the Labour Force Survey (as at Apr 2023).
• Microdata has been released in DataLab for the first time, refer to Microdata and TableBuilder: Retirement and Retirement Intentions for more information.

• Estimates were benchmarked to a 12 month average of population estimates from the Labour Force Survey (as at December 2019). Estimates from previous surveys were also re-benchmarked using 12 month averages from the same LFS population series (as at December 2019) to improve coherence and consistency in the timeseries. The revised timeseries is available in Table 2 of this publications Data downloads section.
• The format of Table 2 has been modified to accommodate extending the series back to the November 1997 survey (which has also been rebenchmarked).
• The definition of retirement no longer requires people to have previously worked in a job for at least 2 weeks. The definition now only requires people to have previously worked in a job for any duration, including jobs that lasted for less than 2 weeks. This change was done to remain consistent with changes that were made to the LFS questionnaire in July 2014 regarding duration of job search.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• The reference period for benchmarks changed from March to December, which resulted in a minor impact on the comparison of level estimates between 2014-15 and 2016-17. This impact has since been removed in 2018-19, when both surveys were rebenchmarked to a 12 month average of the reference period instead of a single point in time.
• Enhancements were made to the previous job module, and new questions added on whether business owners have employees, and on housing tenure.
• Data now also released in TableBuilder.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Questions on housing tenure, previous full-time job details and main source of current personal income were not collected.
• Addition of further age ranges ('65-69', '70-74', '75-79' and '80 and over') for questions on transitioning to retirement.
• To improve coherence with LFS estimates, survey benchmarking changed to include employed, unemployed and not in the labour force populations from the LFS alongside independent total population estimates from the Estimated Resident Population (ERP). Previously, benchmarks were based only on ERP. The reference period for the benchmarks were based on a single point in time (March 2015)

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• New content added on satisfaction with current hours and current work arrangements, self-funded retirement, and transition to retirement plans.
• Additional content included for 2012-13 on self-assessed health status, private health insurance and housing tenure.
• Microdata not released.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Questions on intentions for a healthy/active retirement, housing tenure, private health insurance, and self-assessed health not included.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• In cases where people could not report an exact age they 'intend to permanently give up work', they were given the option of responding with an age range. These range responses were included in 'average age intends to retire' by substituting the low-point of the range into the calculation.
• New content added, including transition to retirement plans, sources of funds for meeting living costs, intentions for a healthy/active retirement, housing tenure, and self-assessed health.
• Additional content included for 2008-09 on self-assessed health status, private health insurance and housing tenure.
• Inclusion of 'all/main sources of funds for meeting living costs' data items.

• Superannuation and Retirement data published in Employment Arrangements, Retirement and Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6361.0).
• Some retirement data only available for people who had retired in the last 20 years.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Collected from the Multi-Purpose Household survey (MPHS) for the full financial year.
• Age intends to retire ‘don’t know’ category replaced with 'don't know age will retire' and 'don't know whether will retire'. People who don't know age will retire were included with the 'intends to retire' population, whereas people who reported 'did not know whether will retire' were excluded from this population. This change had the effect of slightly decreasing the number of people who intend to retire.
• An additional category of 'partner's income' was included in the following data items: 'all/main source of income at retirement', and 'all/main expected source of income at retirement' (in 2004-05 this was included in the 'other' or 'no income' category).

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Collected from the Multi-Purpose Household survey (MPHS) for August 2004 to June 2005.
• Retirement data expanded to include retirement from all kinds of work (full-time and part-time).

• Superannuation data published in Employment Arrangements and Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6361.0).
• Some limited retirement data for people aged under 70 years available.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Collected from 6/8th of the Labour Force Survey.
• Retirement data expanded to include retirement from part-time work (excluding any part-time work of less than 10 hours per week).

• Superannuation data collected in Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6319.0).
• Some limited retirement data for people aged under 75 years available.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Collected from 7/8th of the Labour Force Survey, previously collected from the whole sample.
• Includes people permanently unable to work. These people could be classed as retired if they had previously worked full-time at some point (before becoming permanently unable to work).

• Superannuation data published in Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6319.0).
• No retirement data available.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).

• Superannuation data published in Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6319.0).
• No retirement data available.

• Published in Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).

• Superannuation data published in Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6319.0).
• No retirement data available.

• Published as Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Housing arrangements data was expanded to include all people in sample. Previously, this information was collected once per household.

• Retirement intentions data published in Persons Who Intended to Retire from Full-time Work, Australia (cat. no. 6258.0).
• Detailed Retirement data not available.

• Published as Persons Retired from Full-time Work, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0)
• Scope expanded to people aged 45 years and over.
• Retirement data expanded to include people who had retired more than 20 years ago.
• Retirement intentions data not collected.

• Superannuation data published in Superannuation, Australia (cat. no. 6319.0).
• No retirement data available.

• First retirement survey, published as Persons Aged 50-69 Years Ceasing Full-Time Work, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).
• Retirement measured as retirement from full-time work.
• Scope originally limited to people aged 50 to 69 years.
• Age at retirement and other data items only asked when people had retired in the last 20 years.
• Excluded people permanently unable to work.

• First superannuation survey, published as Survey of Superannuation (cat. no. 6319.0).
• No retirement data available.