Tourism Satellite Accounts: quarterly tourism labour statistics, Australia, experimental estimates methodology

The following table shows the correspondence between tourism related industries and industries in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).

The following table shows how the tourism employment industries correspond with the tourism related industries in the table above.

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.

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).

Employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working fewer than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week. See also Part-time workers.

The value of output at basic prices minus the value of intermediate consumption at purchasers' prices. The term is used to describe gross product by industry and by sector. Basic prices valuation of output removes the distortion caused by variations in the incidence of commodity taxes and subsidies across the output of individual industries.

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 System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) 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.

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 concepts of production and 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.

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 their 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 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidelines and in ABS official employment statistics (Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods).

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.

Employed persons who usually worked fewer than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week or were not at work during the reference week. See also Full-time workers.

Comprises the activities of visitors. See also Visitor.

Industries that would either cease to exist in their present form, producing their present product(s), or would be significantly affected if tourism were to cease. Under the international Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) standards, core lists of tourism characteristic industries, based on the significance of their link to tourism in the worldwide context, are recommended for implementation to facilitate international comparison. In the Australian TSA, for an industry to be a country-specific tourism characteristic industry, at least 25 per cent of its output must be consumed by visitors.

Industries other than tourism characteristic industries, for which a tourism related product is directly identifiable (primary) to, and where the products are consumed by visitors in volumes which are significant for the visitor and/or the producer. All other industries are classified as non-tourism industries, though some of their products may be consumed by visitors and are included in the calculation of direct tourism gross value added and direct tourism GDP.

This is the proportion of the total value added of an industry which is related to tourism.

A visitor is defined as any person 'taking a trip to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited'.

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 tourism labour statistics based on 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 tourism labour-specific lens.

Tourism labour statistics relate to the direct impact of tourism only. A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between the visitor and producer of a good or service. Indirect effects of tourism consumption is a broader notion that includes downstream effects of tourism demand and is out of scope for this publication. These concepts are consistent with the annual Tourism Satellite Account.

The Tourism Satellite Account, Quarterly Tourism Labour Statistics, experimental estimates will be released quarterly after the release of the latest quarter of the Australian Labour Account. This means that these statistics will normally be released between 3 and 4 months after the reference period.

Accuracy remains the main focus of ABS quality control. However, due to the variety of data sources and the compilation methodology for the Quarterly Tourism Labour Statistics, users should exercise some caution in the use and interpretation of the results. In order to produce estimates for tourism industries, assumptions have been made and applied to data from the Labour Account and Labour Force Survey. The assumptions made are noted in the Methodology and may impact on the quality of the statistics. Moreover, major tourism aggregates such as direct tourism employment and jobs are not directly observable in practice and assumptions have been made to create the estimate.

For more information on the accuracy of the Australian Labour Account and the Labour Force Survey refer to their respective Quality Declarations.

Data in this publication has been designed to complement other tourism statistics published in the annual Tourism Satellite Account.

Tourism labour data produced in this publication is directly comparable to labour data for other industries published in the Australian Labour Account.

Analysis and commentary is included with each publication to provide more information and discussion of the estimates. Users may wish to refer to the Methodology and Glossary to help interpret the information provided in this release.

For more information on the interpretability of the Australian Labour Account and the Labour Force Survey refer to their respective Quality Declarations.

The Tourism Satellite Account, Quarterly Tourism Labour Statistics, Australia, experimental release is available on the ABS website with data contained in a Data Cube. If the information you require is not available as a standard product or service, please contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page.