8762.0 - Engineering Construction Activity, Australia, Mar 2017 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/06/2017   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

FEATURE ARTICLE: REVISIONS TO ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION STATISTICS

The Engineering Construction Survey (ECS) measures the value of all engineering construction work undertaken in Australia. This incorporates all construction activity excluding building construction, which is captured under Building Activity, Australia (cat no 8752.0).

Engineering construction activity is reported by:

  • Sector of ownership - capturing the engineering construction work that public and private sector units undertake according to whether the work is being done for the public or private sector. This results in information being output via the following categories: private for private, private for public, public for public. A unit may report in more than one sector.
  • Commodity - capturing all engineering construction activity by the type of work. The Engineering Construction Survey collects numerous types of commodity including mining, roads, rail, landscaping etc.
  • Stage of work - capturing the value of all work commenced in the quarter, the value of work done in the quarter, and the value of work yet to be done on projects that are already underway.

To ensure engineering construction statistics are as accurate as possible the ABS produces revised estimates at various stages of the collection cycle. This article will outline the sources of revisions in greater detail and explain the principles that guide the timing and magnitude of revision to engineering construction statistics.

SOURCES OF REVISIONS

The major sources of revisions to engineering construction statistics include:
  • New/revised data provided by respondents for previous quarters.
  • Reported data that has been altered by the ABS directly, based on confrontation with other data sources.
  • Identification of additional engineering work; Additional engineering construction projects may be identified through responses to the Engineering Construction Survey and interrogation of other (independent) data sources by the ABS.

PRINCIPLES OF REVISIONS

The following principals govern revisions to engineering construction statistics:
  • Revisions are made to the previous reference quarter where more accurate data becomes available.
  • Revisions are made to reference quarters prior to the previous quarter only where they have a significant impact on aggregate level estimates.
  • If the value of a project unexpectedly changes during construction, the original commencement value is not revised; rather these changes are reflected in a movement in the value of work yet to be done.

PUBLICATION OF REVISIONS

Engineering construction statistics are published for a given reference quarter for the first time in Construction Work Done, Preliminary (cat no. 8755.0), before being updated with additional detail in Engineering Construction, Australia (cat no. 8762.0). Revisions made to the previous reference quarter are published in the next available release. Significant revisions made to reference quarters prior to the previous quarter are published once per year in the next March release of Construction Work Done, Preliminary (cat no. 8755.0) and updated with additional detail in Engineering Construction, Australia (cat no. 8762.0).

Subsequent impacts of revisions to engineering construction statistics can be seen in the National Accounts.