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Labour
Survey Information
Labour Force Survey
Release Date: 28/08/2003
Background
Publications
Latest Data
Time Series Spreadsheets
Data Cubes
Data Requests
More Information
BACKGROUND
The ABS has conducted the household Labour Force Survey since 1960. The survey was undertaken on a quarterly basis before February 1978 and has been conducted monthly since then. The design of the survey has remained broadly the same since its introduction, but is regularly updated to ensure that it is the most appropriate for the provision of accurate labour force statistics.
The purpose of the Labour Force Survey is to provide timely information on the labour market activity of the usually resident civilian population of Australia aged 15 and over. The statistics of most interest each month are the estimates of the number of employed and unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the labour force participation rate. The rate of change in the number of persons employed is a key indicator of the pace of economic growth. The unemployment rate (the percentage of the labour force which is unemployed) is the main measure of unutilised labour, and the participation rate (the percentage of the population in the labour force) reflects changes in total labour availability.
The survey contains the following information.
Socio-demographic information;
Sex, age, marital status, relationship in household, family, geographic regional, participation in school and tertiary education, birthplace and year of arrival in Australia;
Persons in the labour force;
Labour force status, unemployment rate, participation rate and gross changes (flows) in labour force status
Persons employed;
Status in employment in main job, full-time or part-time status, hours worked in all jobs, job tenure, underemployment, usual hours, hours in main job, preference for working more hours, reason for working less than 35 hours in the reference week, and occupation and industry in main job. Data on occupation, industry, status in employment, and underemployment, are collected in the months February, May, August and November only
Persons unemployed;
Whether looking for full-time or part-time work, reason for ceasing last job, industry and occupation of last job, duration of unemployment, active steps taken to find work, and whether looking for first job.
Persons not in the labour force;
Whether looking for work (actively, not actively); marginal attachment to the labour force; permanently unable to work; in institutions.
Seasonally adjusted and trend (smoothed seasonally adjusted) data are available for selected series (labour force status, industry of employment, and long term unemployed).
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PUBLICATIONS
Estimates are published monthly, in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). This publication is available electronically in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format via the ABS web site www.abs.gov.au The publication is also available at your local library.
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LATEST DATA
The Main Features (i.e. key figures) from Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) can be viewed for free.
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TIME SERIES SPREADSHEETS
Time Series Spreadsheets from Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) are available for via the ABS web site, www.abs.gov.au. Spreadsheet files are in Excel format.
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DATA CUBES
Monthly (cat. no. 6291.0.55.001) and Quarterly (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) data cubes from the Labour force survey are available via the ABS web site, www.abs.gov.au. Data cubes are multi-dimensional datasets available in SuperTABLE format. You will need a copy of Space-Time Research's SuperTABLE software, available free from Space-Time Research's web site.
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DATA REQUESTS
Requests for data from this survey can be made by contacting the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or the Labour Force contact officer on Canberra (02) 6252 6525.
MORE INFORMATION
Information on the redesigned Labour Force Survey (LFS) implemented in April 2001 can be found in Information Paper: Implementing the Redesigned Labour Force Survey Questionnaire (cat. no. 6295.0) and Information Paper: Questionnaires Used in the Labour Force Survey (cat. no. 6232.0).
For more detailed information please see Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 6102.0).
For a general overview of the labour market, see Labour.
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This page first published 28 August 2003, last updated 28 February 2013 |
