Labour statistics recent and upcoming developments

This page provides an overview of recent and upcoming developments in the ABS Labour Statistics Program, including information on the many changes and developments, and emerging priorities, that will help shape labour statistics into the future.

It starts with a quick overview of additional work to address priority labour market data gaps (which was funded by the Australian Government following the release of the Working Future White Paper), and then provides updates on a range of current work and recent releases of interest.

Like the rest of the Guide to labour statistics, this page will be a 'living document' which is updated periodically, to provide a contemporary reference on progress and priorities within the program.

If you have any questions, would like further information on any of the updates, or would like to provide feedback on the usefulness or content of this page, please contact us via labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

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.
• Producing a LFS TableBuilder product, which will eventually be released monthly.

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.

Barriers & Incentives to Labour Force Participation

• Data is now collected on a continuous basis, and released quarterly (as well as annual).

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.

• New monthly modelled LFS SA4 level estimates were released on 2 May 2024 in the detailed release, along with a new guide to regional labour market data. They are now published monthly with the detailed release. 
• An Information paper with plans for adding sex and age breakdowns to the SA4 data, and producing data below the SA4 level, was released in June 2024.
• Options for backcasting existing modelled estimates are being explored to support historical comparisons.

• An article on seasonal adjustment and changing seasonality in labour force statistics was published with the April LFS release. This builds on information included in the January 2024 release and in other ABS releases, such as Retail trade statistics.
• Improvements to Labour Force estimation were implemented with the February 2024 release to better account for difficult to enumerate parts of the sample (around 2% of the sample).
• Major rebenchmarking of estimates to the final Estimated Resident Population after 2021 Census has been completed.

• Trend estimates were reinstated in the Payments quadrant of the Labour Account in the June quarter 2024. This follows reinstatement of trend estimates in the Jobs, People and Hours quadrants in September quarter 2023. 
• Indicative state estimates for jobs and hours worked were released again alongside the June quarter 2024 Labour Account release. This demonstrates potential for future disaggregation of the Labour Account, with additional data and investment.
• The third issue of the Labour Account-based Labour hire workers release was published in September 2024 (for June 2024).
• A Spotlight on the Labour Account was included in the March 2024 Labour Account release. It provides information about the Labour Account, its benefits and how it can be used to draw unique insights.
• The Labour Account-based Multiple job-holders multi-source release is now published quarterly, alongside the Labour Account.

• Weekly Payroll Jobs is transitioning to a quarterly release as a temporary measure, to enable us to redirect some resources toward improved and new labour market products and expanding the use of STP data in ABS labour statistics. The time between the final payroll period and the release date will be extended to take advantage of more complete STP reporting.
• Employer characteristics in Weekly Payroll Jobs indexes were updated with the release in March 2024. We are developing a roadmap for how to move from these summary indexes of STP-reported jobs to level estimates of employee jobs.
• The May 2024 release of Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator included further enhancements to the way we use Single Touch Payroll data to produce level estimates and movements.

• A comprehensive review of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) is underway and will be completed by the end of 2024. The new Australian standard will be called the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA). The review is expected to include some information on our implementation plans for labour statistics, including considerations around backcasting the LFS time series.

• First quarterly release of Payroll Jobs will be on October 24 2024.
• First annual release of Barriers & Incentives to Labour Force Participation (previously biennial series) will be on November 6 2024.
• Next annual release of Public Sector Employment and Earnings will be on November 6 2024.
• First quarterly release of Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator will be on 20 November 2024.
• Information paper on expanding the Labour Account to include unpaid care will be released on 29 November 2024.
• Backcast modelled regional labour force estimates by SA4 are expected to be released in 2024.
• First release of Labour Hire Workers on the new regular release schedule of April each year on 4 April 2025.
• Preliminary experimental estimates of unpaid care in the Labour Account will be released in mid-2025.
• Modelled regional labour force estimates by SA4, age and sex, and estimates below SA4, will be available in 2025.

15 August 2024 – Gender Indicators and Pay Gap data released with Average Weekly Earnings; updates will continue on 6-monthly basis.

2 May 2024 – New modelled LFS SA4 level estimates in LFS detailed release, along with a new guide to regional labour market data. They are now released monthly. 

21 February 2024 - data on the use of restraint clauses in employment contracts (e.g. non-compete clauses) released; collected through Employee Earnings and Hours.

13 December 2023 – data on casual workers transitioning to non-casual employment released in Working Arrangements; now annual release.

24 November 2023 – data on digital platform workers collected and released in an article, with summary data also included in Working Arrangements.

9 November 2023 – data on Public Sector Employment and Earnings released; replaced the previous survey-based estimates with Single Touch Payroll data and survey comparisons.

24 October 2023 - Experimental estimates of households and average household size were added to the 2023 Labour Force Status of Families release.