Balancing Work and Caring Responsibilities, Tasmania

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW

The object of the survey is to accurately ascertain how Tasmanians balance their workplace and caring responsibilities, to gain a better understanding of the challenges the burden of these dual roles create.

PURPOSE

The information gathered will act as a basis for future workplace reform and consultation, by identifying problems that arise when caring responsibilities and those of the workplace compete to be met. Key components include;

• Measurement of how demanding balancing workplace and caring responsibilities are in terms of satisfying work schedules and the time required to fulfill caring responsibilities.
• An assesment of the level of burden associated with competing duties at the work place and home by ascertaining the nature of compromises made by workers in terms of their employment in order to fulfill their caring responsibilities, such as reducing their hours of work or refusing promotion.
• The identification of the relationships between carers and those for whom they provide this care.
• The above will inform an estimate of the amount and form of caring responsibilities placed on workers.
• The identification of the strategies that are utilised by workers to deal with competing duties such as paid and unpaid leave, and whether these arrangements are formal or informal .
• A component to ascertain workers perceptions of how their caring responsibilities are regarded in the workplace.

The Balancing Work and Caring Responsibilities (BWCR) Survey was conducted as supplementary to the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS). For the BWCR Survey, all usual residents of private dwellings aged 15 years and over were in scope with second phase samples selected from LFS sample units representing sub-populations of:

• wage and salary earners;
• self-employed persons; and
• persons not employed who had cared for another person during Jul, Aug and Sept 1999.

Normal Labour Force exclusions apply to scope and coverage, for example:

• members of the permanent defence forces;
• certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from census and estimated populations;
• overseas residents in Australia;
• members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia; and
• Jervis Bay Territory.

Coverage

In the Labour Force Survey, coverage rules are applied that aim to ensure that each person is associated with only one dwelling, and hence has only one chance of selection. The chance of a person being enumerated at two separate dwellings in the one survey is considered to be negligible

DATA DETAIL

Conceptual framework
As the data was collected as supplementary to the Monthly Labour Force Survey, some data can be cross-classified with data from that Labour Force Survey. For example:

• Age;
• Sex;
• Employment status; and,
• Full-time/part-time employment status.

Results from the survey will be available in a publication (Balancing Work and Caring Responsibilites, Tasmania, ABS Cat No. 4903.6 ) as well as in additional user tables. In some cases, additional unpublished cross-classifications of data items will be available.

Some important populations available from this survey include:

• All Tasmanians aged 15 or more living in private dwellings (Persons [aged 15 or more]);
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are employed;
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are wage/salary earners;
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are self-employed
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are not working;
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are not working and have caring responsibilities;
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are employed and have caring responsibilities;
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who are not in the labour force and have caring responsibilities; and
• Persons [aged 15 or more] who have caring responsibilities;

Classifications

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) data items include:

• Sex;
• Age;
• Marital status;
• Country of birth (for Tasmania generally Aust, NZ, UK and Eire, Other Europe, Asia, and Other);
• Labour Force Status (employed/unemployed/not in the labour force);
• Employed status for employed persons (full-time/part- time);
• Labour force dissemination regions (Greater Hobart and Southern Stat Div, Northern Stat Div and Mersey-Lyell Stat Div);
• Household Type;
• Current school attendance for 18-24 yr olds (whether at school or full-time attendance at University or TAFE);
• Number of children present in the household.
• Industry of employed persons

not applicable

GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Tasmania
Statistical Division

Comments and/or Other Regions

not applicable

COLLECTION FREQUENCY
Once Only

Frequency comments

not applicable

COLLECTION HISTORY

Not applicable. This is a once-only survey.

DATA AVAILABILITY
Yes

Data availability comments