Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past & Future Releases

INVESTIGATIONS INTO MAKING GREATER USE OF LABOUR SURVEY DATA

The Monthly Population Survey (MPS) provides the ABS with a range of labour and other data on a monthly basis. The MPS comprises the Labour Force Survey and one or more supplementary surveys.

Households in the MPS are interviewed over eight consecutive months forming a matched sample. This matched sample can show month-to-month labour market transitions, such as those released in the Gross Flows datacube (GM1) available in Labour Force, Australia (6202.0), but it also provides the possibility of producing longer-term transitions. There is also a range of other information collected as part of the MPS in each month, and across different months, which could be used to produce new analytical datasets.

A number of dimensions are currently being explored to make greater use of labour survey data, which include:

• The production of longitudinal Labour Force Survey data.
• The development of family level estimates for the Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership (cat. no. 6310.0) labour force supplementary survey.
• The development of linkages between labour supplementary surveys collected in different months, such as Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership (cat. no. 6310.0), collected annually in August, and Education and Work (cat. no. 6227.0), collected annually in May.