Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

Whether in the labour force at some time during the year

For the Labour Force Experience Survey, labour force activity over a 12-month period was determined from a more limited set of questions than is used in the monthly Labour Force Survey. For this reason, the terms worked and looked for work are used, rather than the more precisely defined terms employed and unemployed, as used in the Labour Force Survey. In this survey, the concepts worked and looked for work are used to determine whether a person was in the labour force during the year. Therefore, this concept is also based on a more limited set of questions than the Labour Force Survey.

Number of spells of looking for work during the year

The number of different periods, including the current period, during which a person was not working but was looking for a job.