Following the release of Working Future: The Australian Government’s White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities on 25 September 2023, the ABS received investment to address priority labour market data gaps.
This additional investment in the labour statistics program builds on earlier funding ABS received to either address gaps (e.g. measuring digital platform workers), increase the frequency of our statistics (e.g. annual barriers and incentives data, complemented by quarterly indicators), or to improve the quality of existing statistics (e.g. enhanced regional labour force data).
The priority data gaps funded through the White paper, and associated work, are:
Enhancing data on employment outcomes and barriers
- Linking the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to relevant administrative data (such as employment services and income support data) in the Person Linked Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA).
- Producing new summary statistics and insights, including some longitudinal analysis, using the linked LFS-PLIDA data and the existing Longitudinal LFS.
- barriers one from previous NPP
Labour Household Survey content modernisation
- Collecting more survey data on an continuous basis – and producing new statistics – related to quality of employment, job security, barriers to job mobility and career progression, and additional insights into people who are not employed.
- Producing an integrated suite of monthly underutilisation measures (u-series).
- Addressing legacy collection issues and limitations.
Expanding the Labour Account to measure unpaid care and add demographic breakdowns
- Improving the data available on the amount (hours) and estimated monetary value of unpaid care through an expansion to the Labour Account, to ensure its contribution to society and the economy is more visible alongside paid work.
- Adding new estimates of sex and age to the existing Labour Account data, to provide a meaningful point of comparison between paid work and unpaid care as responsibilities are not distributed evenly across the population.
Consulting with First Nations people on more frequent employment data
- Consulting with First Nations people on more frequent employment data requirements and potential solutions.