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QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.


RELEVANCE

The Pregnancy and Employment Transitions (cat. no. 4913.0) publication presents information on birth mothers of a child living with them for which a child was under two years of age at the time of interview in November 2011. In situations where women had more than one child under the age of 2, data was collected in respect of the employment transitions of women around the most recent birth (i.e. the youngest child).

Data collected about women's job during pregnancy; first job started or returned to after the birth; current job details; partners job while the woman was pregnant; partners first job started or returned to after the birth; and partners current job details are cross-classified by characteristics such as income, industry and occupation and demographic characteristics.

TIMELINESS

The Pregnancy and Employment Transitions Survey (PaETS) is conducted every 6 years as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey. Results from this survey are released the following year after the completion of enumeration.

ACCURACY

Estimates from the PaETS are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors. Relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of the size of the sampling error affecting the estimate, i.e. the error introduced by basing estimates on a sample of the population rather than the full population. Non-sampling errors are inaccuracies that occur because of imperfections in reporting by respondents and interviewers, and errors made in coding and processing data.

The PaETS was designed primarily to provide estimates at the Australia level. Broad estimates are available for state and capital city/balance, though users should exercise caution when using estimates at this level because of the presence of high sampling errors. RSEs for all estimates are available in the Technical Note.

The RSEs for the estimates were published in 'direct' form and were released in spreadsheet format as an attachment to Pregnancy and Employment Transitions Survey (cat. no. 4913.0).

COHERENCE

While the LFS provides the official estimate of persons in the labour force, the PaETs provides further information on the characteristics of these people. Summary information is also collected in the Labour Force Survey on a quarterly basis.

The ABS first conducted the PaETS in November 2005. The November 2011 survey collected additional information on women's employment transitions during pregnancy; on starting or returning to work; and job details at November 2011. The survey also collected information on leave arrangements of women and partners for the birth of the child; discrimination in the workplace during pregnancy; work arrangements on return to work; whether women had a partner during pregnancy; and the work transitions of these partners. Care should be exercised when comparing the estimates from this survey with the November 2005 Pregnancy and Employment Transitions Survey.

INTERPRETABILITY

The Pregnancy and Employment Transitions (cat. no. 4913) publication contains tables with footnoted data and a Summary of Findings to aid interpretation of the results of the survey. Detailed Explanatory Notes, Technical Note and Glossary also provide information on terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics.