EXPLANATORY NOTES


INTRODUCTION

1 This publication contains results from the Western Australia (WA) Labour Mobility and Intentions Survey, conducted throughout WA during the two weeks commencing Monday, 6 October 2008.

2 The survey was conducted as a supplement to the ABS Monthly Population Survey (MPS). The MPS is based on a multi-stage area sample of private dwellings and a list sample of special dwellings (hotels, motels, hospitals, prisons, short-stay caravan parks, etc.). Persons living in special dwellings were excluded from the scope of this survey. Information is obtained from the occupants of the selected dwellings by specially trained interviewers. For details of the design, scope and coverage of the MPS, users should refer to any recent edition of the ABS publication, Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) or the November 2002 edition of Information Paper: Labour Force Survey Sample Design (cat. no. 6269.0).


SCOPE

3 The WA Labour Mobility and Intentions Survey was conducted on a subset of the full sample of private and non-private dwellings in WA that were included in the MPS.

4 The survey covered all persons who were usual residents of private dwellings and non-institutionalised dwellings (e.g. caravan parks, hostels etc) with the exception of:

• members of the Australian permanent defence forces
• certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from censuses and surveys
• overseas residents in Australia
• members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependents) stationed in Australia

5 Excluded from the supplementary topic:

• households consisting entirely of visitors
• selections in the Indigenous Communities Frame
• respondents in Special Dwellings (e.g. prisons, hospitals and boarding schools)
• persons permanently unable to work
• persons aged 65 years and over permanently not intending to work

6 Information was collected by either face to face or telephone interview from one responsible adult per household. This adult answered questions on behalf of all persons in the household aged 15 years and over. Information was sought from approximately 3,636 persons and data was obtained from approximately 95% or 3,458 of these people.


COVERAGE

7 Coverage rules were applied to ensure that each person was associated with only one dwelling and hence had only one chance of selection in the survey.


EFFECTS OF ROUNDING

8 Estimates in this publication have been rounded and discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.


OCCUPATION AND INDUSTRY DATA

9 Information about the industry of a person's current occupation was obtained by merging data from August and November Labour Force data with the Labour Mobility and Intentions Survey. Where records could not be successfully matched with the Labour Force data a value was imputed.


RELATIONSHIP WITH MINING INDUSTRY

10 To measure the extent of the influence of the mining industry in the Labour Force people working for an employer were asked whether they worked in a mining operation or mining support activity (see Glossary). Owner managers were asked whether their business was a mining operation or support activity or whether it provided a service to the mining industry. Their responses were then cross classified with industry of current occupation.


INTENTION TO LEAVE CURRENT JOB

11 People who were working were asked whether they intended to leave or change their current job within the next 12 months, whether they intended to leave the work force permanently and whether they intended to move to a job in a different industry.


INTENDED EDUCATION

12 Respondents were asked whether they intended to study for another educational qualification within the next three years and if so whether it was for career or job related reasons. They were asked about the type of educational institution or organisation at which they intended to enrol, and the level of qualification intended to study.


WORKING OUTSIDE PERTH

13 To establish the number of people affected by the fly-in fly-out working arrangements, people who were usual residents of Perth were asked whether they worked outside the metropolitan area for 'all or most of the time' , 'some of the time' or whether they worked 'all of the time in the Perth metropolitan area'.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

14 ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated. Without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act, 1905.


RELATED PUBLICATIONS

15 The ABS produces a wide range of publications concerning social, housing and demographic statistics. Users may wish to refer to the following ABS publications which relate to the survey topic:

• Labour Force, Australia, April 2009, cat. no. 6202.0
• Locations of Work, Nov 2008, cat. no. 6275.0
• Labour Mobility, Australia, Feb 2008, cat. no. 6209.0
• Labour Force Survey and Labour Mobility, Australia: Basic and Expanded Confidentialised Unit Record Files, Technical Manual, Feb 2008, cat. no. 6202.0.30.005
• Microdata: Labour Force Survey and Labour Mobility, Basic and Expanded CURF, Australia, Feb 2008, cat. no. 6202.0.30.004
• Information Paper: Population Concepts, Australia 2008, cat. no. 3107.0.55.006
• Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006, cat. no.1292.0

16 Current publications and other products released by the ABS are listed in the Catalogue of Publications and Products (cat. no. 1101.0). The Catalogue is available from any ABS office or the ABS web site <https://www.abs.gov.au>. The ABS also issues a daily Release Advice on the web site which details products to be released in the week ahead.