APPENDIX 1 DATA SOURCES
The labour productivity measures produced by the ABS are based on hours worked and measures of real output. This section briefly describes the data sourced used to create these labour productivity measures.
HOURS WORKED
The ABS collects information on hours worked in a number of different household surveys. The most regularly collected and reliable of these surveys is the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Hours worked data is also collected in three business surveys:
- Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours
- Major Labour Costs Survey
- Labour Price Index Survey.
After considering the relative advantages and disadvantages, the LFS has been adopted as the basis for total annual hours worked estimates. The main reason for not using the ABS business surveys is that they do not adequately capture the concept being measured. These surveys tend to measure hours paid rather than hours worked and miss the hours worked by self employed. In contrast, the LFS collects information:
- on hours actually worked
- on multiple jobs
- on people who are self-employed
- in each month of the year
- from a large sample
- over a long period of time.
The LFS is a monthly survey of approximately 27,000 households which has obtained information on hours actually worked since February 1978. Information for over 60,000 people is collected each month during a two week enumeration period. The interviews usually begin on the Monday which falls between the 6th and 12th of the month. Information is collected on employment and hours actually worked during the week preceding the interview. This provides information on work patterns during two reference weeks of each month.
Apart from the long time series and large sample size, the major advantage of using the LFS to estimate annual hours worked is that the survey design gives reliable information on actual working behaviour in the reference week. The survey collects information on both hours actually worked and employment - the main variables of interest in estimating average annual hours actually worked.
Another advantage is that the LFS includes people who are self-employed and people employed in industries such as agriculture and fisheries. These groups, and information on hours actually worked, are not included in the scope of the ABS establishment surveys.
GROSS VALUE ADDED
The measure of real output used by the ABS in its estimates of productivity is gross value added in chain volume terms. This is defined to be output less intermediate inputs (materials, energy, business services, etc. used up in the process of production), derived as a chain volume index.
Quarterly chain volume measures of gross value added by industry are derived by interpolating and extrapolating annual benchmarks using quarterly indicator series. Both the annual benchmarks and the quarterly indicators are calculated as chain volume measures. From 1995-96 the annual benchmarks are obtained from supply and use (S-U) tables compiled in the prices of the previous year. For more information refer to Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Source and Methods (cat. no. 5216.0) Chapter 24.
Print Page
Print All