5260.0.55.001 - Information paper: Experimental Estimates of Industry Multifactor Productivity, 2007  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 07/09/2007  First Issue
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Contents >> Manufacturing >> Appendix

APPENDIX:

Details on hours worked

The Australian System of National Accounts published estimates of hours worked for the Manufacturing industry have been based on a different source compared to all other industries. For the years 1986-87 to 2000-01, the employment estimates for the Manufacturing industry have been obtained from the annual census/survey of Manufacturing establishments and the average hours worked comes from the Labour Force Survey. For the remaining years, employment data are not available from the manufacturing surveys so all labour input data have been sourced from the Labour Force Survey.


Figure 5.7 compares the hours worked series based on the combination of the annual survey/census of manufacturing establishments and the Labour Force Survey, and the hours worked series based solely on the Labour Force Survey. The hours worked series based solely on the Labour Force data decreases at a slower rate than the hours worked series currently used in the National Accounts. Growth in MFP would be faster in the years up to 2000-01 if the Manufacturing survey and census data were used.


The main reason for the difference in hours worked is that the two series are based on different employment estimates prior to 2000-01. The average hours worked series is based on research work that was implemented in Australian System of National Accounts, 2005-06. The methodology is outlined in the information paper, Implementing New Estimates of Hours Worked into the Australian National Accounts, 2006 (cat. no. 5204.0.55.003). However, there are negligible differences in the movements between the two series average hours worked.

5.7 Manufacturing hours worked, (2004-05 = 100)
Graph: 5.7 Manufacturing hours worked, (2004-05 = 100)



The main difference in the employment series occurs in 1989-90, where the census/survey data showed a decline in employment of 6% while the LFS data showed no change. Comparisons of employment estimates (figure 5.8) to the 1991 Population Census suggest similar results to the Manufacturing census/survey data (ABS 1994) in terms of levels. However, there were some methodological changes occurring around this time which affected the interpretation of the movement in employment from the Manufacturing survey. The main change was to the definition of units within Manufacturing that began implementation in 1988-89 and was completed in 1990-91 (ABS 1994). The LFS estimates are considered to provide better measures of movements in labour inputs, and as such are used in this paper for the entire time series.

5.8 Manufacturing employment
Graph: 5.8 Manufacturing employment



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