Queensland Flood 2011
Due to the flooding in Queensland in January 2011, the Relative Standard Errors (RSE) for January 2011 vary across labour market regions and are higher than normal in some. The RSEs for the Darling Downs-South West and Ipswich City labour market regions are approximately 50% higher, while the RSEs for the Brisbane City Inner Ring labour market region increased by approximately 25%. The Brisbane City Outer Ring, West Moreton and Mackay-Fitzroy-Central West labour market regions have RSEs approximately 10% higher. All other labour market regions have minimal differences. From February 2011, the data returns to normal. Refer to the article Impact of the floods on the Labour Force Survey in the January 2011 issue of Labour Force, Australia, (cat. no. 6202.0) for more information.
Note, the labour market regions above are referenced under the old Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC). The data in this data cube is published under the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).
Labour force sample post 2011 Census
The labour force sample selected after the 2011 Census was phased-in over four months from May to August 2013. See the article titled "New Labour Force Sample Design" in the May 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) for more information. During phase in of the new sample, standard errors associated with key labour force data are expected to increase by approximately 10% at a national level, however increased standard errors and variability in the estimates may be more evident in detailed regional data during this time.
Townsville Flood 2019 (Spreadsheets Table 02, Table 16, Table 16b, Table 16c)
Flooding in Townsville in February 2019 resulted in a major disruption to the operation of the Labour Force Survey. As a result, there was a very low sample of responding households in the region in February.
Given the severity of these disruptions, and to ensure that this loss of sample did not affect data for Australia and Queensland, the ABS imputed sample for Townsville for February 2019. The imputation drew upon previous information that had recently been collected from people in Townsville. The imputation may have resulted in a slight overestimation of hours worked in Queensland in February 2019, given hours worked in Townsville may have been lower during the floods.
Following the collection of March 2019 data from Townsville, the February data was re-assessed and has not been revised. The ABS will review the data again in February 2020.
Users of the matched sample analysis should also exercise some caution when looking at Queensland data between January, February and March, given the effect of the imputation for Townsville.
During 2018, the ABS estimated that employed people in Townsville accounted for around 1 per cent of all employed people in Australia, around 4 per cent of employed people in Queensland, and around 9 per cent of employed people in the regions in Queensland outside of Brisbane.
Bushfires - January 2020 (Spreadsheets Table 16, Table 16b, Table 16c)
Bushfires resulted in disruption to ABS data collection operations in some regions in New South Wales and Victoria during January 2020.
In New South Wales, some areas within the 'Capital Region', the 'Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven' region and the 'Mid North Coast' region could not be included in the survey for January, accounting for around 3.3% of the total sample in the state. In Victoria, some areas within the 'Latrobe - Gippsland' region were also unable to be surveyed, accounting for around 0.8% of the Victorian sample. As a result, there was slightly higher than usual survey non-response in these areas.
While no notable impact was observed, it is important to note that changes in Labour Force statistics between December 2019 and January 2020 (particularly changes in hours worked) may still be slightly understated or overstated, relative to what would have been observed if the ABS had been able to collect information from the entire sample. The ABS will undertake further analysis of January 2020 data when February 2020 data has been collected.
Some region level data for New South Wales and Victoria for January 2020 will not be published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) on the 27th February. The ABS expects to resume publishing these estimates with either the release of February 2020 data (in March) or March 2020 data (in April).