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WHAT'S NEW IN THE LABOUR FORCE

UPCOMING CHANGES

For the March 2018 release of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) to be released on the 19th of April, the following changes will be implemented:

ANNUAL SEASONAL REANALYSIS

Every year, the ABS conducts an "Annual Seasonal Re-analysis" of the Labour Force time series, on estimates up to March. Minor adjustments are made as a result of this annual review process (for more information see Explanatory Note 33). The outcomes of the 2018 review will be incorporated in the estimates published in the March 2018 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), which will be released on 19 April 2018.

While seasonal factors for the complete time series are estimated every month, they are reviewed annually at a more detailed level than is possible on a monthly basis, to ensure that time series estimates are of the highest quality. As with previous reviews, the ABS expects revisions to seasonally adjusted and trend estimates arising from the annual seasonal reanalysis to be minimal.


IMPROVEMENTS TO TREND ESTIMATION

As part of the 2018 Annual Seasonal Reanalysis, the ABS will implement some minor improvements to trend estimation for Labour Force time series. These improvements will reduce the extent of revisions in trend series over time, providing particular benefits for series with smaller populations (eg. states and territories with smaller populations).

The ABS will publish a short article in the next release of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), further outlining the improved approach and including indicative impacts of the change to trend estimates.

The methods used to calculate seasonally adjusted estimates will not be changed.


MONTHLY UNDEREMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES - TREND AND SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

To coincide with the Annual Seasonal Reanalysis, the ABS will be expanding the range of underemployment and underutilisation measures. Currently, the ABS publishes a combination of quarterly trend, seasonally adjusted and original estimates back to February 1978, and monthly original estimates back to July 2014.

Starting with the March 2018 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), the ABS will publish monthly trend, seasonally adjusted and original estimates back to February 1978.

Further information on the new monthly series will be released in the next issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). This information will include changes that will be made to the suite of time series spreadsheets.