4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1999  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/06/1999   
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Contents >> Work >> Definitions & references

Definitions & references

Average hours worked per week by full-time workers - average hours worked, including overtime, by full-time workers during the survey reference week. The hours are those actually worked and are not necessarily the hours paid for.

    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Average weekly hours paid overtime per employee - total overtime hours paid for divided by the total number of employees (including those who were not paid for any overtime). Overtime is time worked in excess of award, standard or agreed hours of work for which payment is received.
    Reference: Job Vacancies and Overtime, Australia (cat. no. 6354.0).

Casually employed - employees who were not entitled to either paid holiday leave or sick leave in their main job.
    Reference: Weekly Earnings of Employees, Australia (cat. no. 6310.0).

Discouraged jobseekers - people who were marginally attached to the labour force, wanted to work and who were available to start work within four weeks but whose main reason for not actively seeking work was that they believed they would not find a job for any of the following reasons:
  • considered too old or too young by employers;
  • difficulties with language or ethnic background;
  • lacked necessary schooling, training, skills or experience;
  • no jobs in their locality or line of work; or
  • they considered that there were no jobs at all available.
    Reference: Persons Not in the Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6220.0).

Employed - persons aged 15 and over who, during the reference week, worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission, payment in kind, or worked without pay in a family business, or who had a job but were not at work.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Employees - an employee is a person who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee by their employer while working on a commission basis, tips, piece rates or payment in kind, or a person who operates his or her own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Employer - an employer is a person who operates his or her own unincorporated economic enterprise or engages independently in a profession or trade, and hires one or more employees.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Employment/population ratio - the number of employed persons in a group expressed as a proportion of the civilian population in the same group.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Full-time job seekers - for any group, unemployed persons seeking full-time work, expressed as a proportion of the civilian population in the same group.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Full-time workers - employed persons who usually worked 35 hours a week or more and others who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Industrial dispute - a withdrawal from work by a group of employees, or a refusal by an employer or a number of employers to permit some or all of their employees to work, made in order to enforce or resist a demand, or to express a grievance.
    Reference: Industrial Disputes, Australia (cat. no. 6322.0).

Job mobile - the proportion of people aged 15-69 who had worked at some time during the previous year who were job mobile, that is, they changed their job (employer/business or locality) within the previous year.
    Reference: Labour Mobility, Australia (cat. no. 6209.0).

Labour force - for any group, persons who were employed or unemployed, as defined.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Long-term unemployed - people unemployed for 52 weeks or longer.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Manufacturing industries - the Manufacturing division of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) (cat. no. 1292.0).
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Marginally attached - persons aged 15-69 years who were not in the labour force, wanted to work and: were actively looking for work but were not available to start; or were not actively looking for work, but were available to start work.
    Reference: Persons Not in the Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6220.0).

Median age - the age at which half the population is older and half is younger.

Median age at retirement - the median divides the population of persons who have retired from full-time work in two. Half of the population retired from full-time work at an age younger than the median, with the other half retiring at an older age.
    Reference: Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0)

Median duration of unemployment - the period of unemployment at which half of the unemployed had been unemployed for more weeks and half had been unemployed for fewer weeks.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Occupation - a collection of jobs which are sufficiently similar in their main tasks to be grouped together for the purposes of classification. The Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) Second Edition, which is used for the classification of occupation, applies skill level and skill specialisation as major criteria.

Skill level is measured by: formal education and training, and previous experience usually required for entry into an occupation. ASCO Second Edition assigns each of the nine major groups in the classification to one of five ranked skill levels.

Skill Level 1 comprises the major groups, managers and administrators, and professionals; Skill Level 2 - associate professionals; Skill Level 3 - tradespersons and related workers and advanced clerical and service workers; Skill Level 4 - intermediate production and transport workers; and Skill Level 5 - elementary clerical, sales and service workers and labourers and related workers.
    Reference: Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, Second edition (cat. no. 1220.0).

Own account worker - a person who operates his or her own unincorporated economic enterprise or engages independently in a profession or trade, and hires no employees. (this category was formally entitled self-employed.)
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Participation rate - for any group, the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population in the same group.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Part-time workers - employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week and who did so during the reference week.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Part-time workers who prefer more hours - part-time employed who indicated they would prefer to work more hours.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Private sector - the public sector includes all employees of local government authorities and government departments, agencies and authorities created by, or reporting to, the Commonwealth Parliament and State and Territory Parliaments. All other employees are classified as private sector.
    Reference: Job Vacancies and Overtime, Australia (cat. no. 6354.0).

Retired persons - persons aged 45 years and over, who had a full-time job at some time and who had ceased full-time labour force activity (i.e. were not working full-time, were not looking for and did not intend to work full-time at any time in the future). Unpaid voluntary work was not considered full-time work.
    Reference: Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia (cat. no. 6238.0).

Service industries - the combination of the following divisions of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) (cat. no. 1292.0): wholesale trade; retail trade; accommodation, cafes and restaurants; transport and storage; communication services; finance and insurance; property and business services; government administration and defence; education; health and community services; cultural and recreational services; and personal and other services.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Small business - businesses with fewer than 20 employees in all industries except manufacturing where they have fewer than 100 employees, and agriculture where they have an estimated value of agricultural operations between $22,500 and $400,000.
    Reference: Small Business, Australia (cat. no. 1321.0).

Standardised participation rate - age-specific labour force participation rates expressed as a percentage of the standard civilian population, to remove the effect of age and sex composition of the population. The standard population used is the 1991 Census population.

Trade union membership - employees with membership of an organisation (or employee or professional association), the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members.
    Reference: Trade Union Members, Australia (cat. no. 6325.0).

Unemployed - persons aged 15 and over who were not employed during the reference week, but who had actively looked for work and were available to start work.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Unemployment rate - the number unemployed expressed as a proportion of the labour force. Separate rates are calculated for sub-groups of the population.
    Reference: Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6203.0).

Working days lost due to industrial disputes - total working days lost by employees due to industrial disputes during the year.
    Reference: Industrial Disputes, Australia (cat. no. 6322.0).


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