Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia

From February 2021, statistics from the Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey are now published in three topic-based releases. See:

• Underemployed workers
• Potential workers
• Job mobility

Data from the Participation, Job Search and Mobility survey for 2015 to 2021 will continue to be available in TableBuilder.

This release of statistics from the PJSM survey includes a simpler approach for presenting statistics on unused labour supply. The new Potential workers release of PJSM data presents statistics all people who are not employed (i.e. regardless of their classification in the monthly Labour Force Survey as employed or not in the labour force), and the extent to which they may be regarded as "Potential workers" based on their circumstances and activities.

Historically, PJSM content has been presented using the marginal attachment framework and the characteristics of people "not participating in the labour force", based on the criteria used to derive unemployment (i.e. activity and/or availability). 

While the new approach to presenting statistics for potential workers differs slightly from the traditional marginal attachment framework, and presents some population groups that do not entirely overlap with some of the marginally attached groups, there is still a strong alignment between them. Also statistics within the traditional marginal attachment framework are still available.

In 2018, a new category was introduced to the marginal attachment framework – “Had a job to go to.” – to reflect people who reported having a job but were not classified as employed (for example, as they had not yet started a new job already obtained, or had been away from work without pay for more than four weeks.

A review of the methods used to identify people who “had a job to go to” identified that some of the relatively small group of people who were not available to start work within four weeks were inadvertently excluded from this group. As a result, estimates have been revised for the period 2015 to 2021. New sub-categories have also been included to separate this group into those who were available to start last week, those who could start within 1-4 weeks, and those who were available in over 4 weeks.

The PJSM data downloads (Excel spreadsheets) have been redesigned to adopt the timeseries format used in publishing the monthly Labour Force statistics. Previously, most PJSM data downloads contained only one year of data, with revised historical data provided in a zip file of separate yearly tables.

The new timeseries format simplifies and consolidates the PJSM data downloads into a single set of 22 spreadsheets. Each spreadsheet contains timeseries data for 2015 to 2021. The timeseries format also facilitates automatic downloads and “data scraping,” with each timeseries provided a unique series ID. To assist with the transition to the timeseries format, two extra tabs have been provided in the spreadsheets. The first tab presents the data for February 2021 in the old table format. The second tab arranges the links to each timeseries in the same table format, using the unique timeseries IDs.

Estimates that exceed relative standard errors of 25% and 50% and should be used with caution will continue to be highlighted in the timeseries spreadsheets (cells with red triangles), however the relative standard error values will now be provided in separate zip file containing 22 “shadows tables”.

Many improvements have been made to the PJSM tablebuilder file to simplify the way data items are presented, increase the range of data items and generally enhance the usability of the product. These changes include:

• Previously, two separate data items measuring the same concept across different sub-populations (for example, availability to start work last week for people not in the labour force, and for people who were underemployed) were presented as two different output variables (specific to each sub-population). These have been combined into single output variables that can be applied across all populations.
• The way that data items are arranged in TableBuilder has also been changed to better reflect different conceptual groupings (rather than populations and data items) to assist with understanding the data and using the dataset. Data items are now listed under one of 17 conceptual groups.
• Each data item now has a descriptive label to describe which populations are not included under the main categories. For example, in the data item “Main difficulty in finding work,” the “Not applicable” category has been relabelled “Did not look for work”
• Hours worked data items have been aligned so they all provide data to the same level of detail. There is now consistency in the lowest available level (usually single hours or single weeks), and the way that these items are aggregated into higher level groupings. Hours worked data items are now included as parametric items, to allow for more medians and means to be calculated.
• Occupation data is now provided to the unit group level (4 digit), although TableBuilder may suppress this level of detail if a requested table is too finely detailed. Occupation data can be aggregated to minor, sub-major and major group levels (3, 2 and 1 digit) to avoid a table suppression
• Some data item labels have been revised or shortened to improve interpretability (note that the concepts remain the same)

See Microdata: Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia release for further information of the changes.

Since 2018, the PJSM data have been rebenchmarked every year to reflect the most recently available release of Estimated Resident Population (ERP) data and Labour Force Survey population benchmarks. The data for 2015 to 2021 have been revised to incorporate the population benchmarks that were used to produce estimates published in the April 2021 Labour Force, Australia.

To reduce the impact of seasonal effects on total employment, underemployment and unemployment, the benchmarks have been adjusted by factors based on seasonally adjusted Labour Force Survey estimates (as published in April 2021). For example, February estimates have a typical seasonal pattern of higher unemployment. The factors applied reduce the number of unemployed, to align with seasonally adjusted LFS estimates.

Trend series factors would usually be used in PJSM benchmarks but are currently not available, during the COVID period. Seasonally adjusted factors will be used until trend series are reinstated in Labour Force statistics.