6291.0.55.001 - Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery, Nov 2015 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 23/12/2015   
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FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME JOB SEARCH

As of July 2014, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) collects data that identify whether unemployed people are looking for full-time work, part-time work, or both. Prior to this, the sequencing in the LFS questionnaire resulted in people only being asked if they were looking for part-time work if they indicated that they had not been looking for full-time work. As a result, people who would have have looked for both full-time work and part-time work were not identified. From July 2014, all unemployed people are asked whether they are looking for either full-time work, part-time work, or both. 

Obtaining this detailed breakdown of unemployed people is a result of the review of Labour Force statistics, as detailed in Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review (cat. no. 6107.0).

Previously available information established that most unemployed people have been looking for full-time work. However, the new data show that most of these unemployed people have also been looking for part-time work as part of their job search. For example, 415,800 unemployed people were looking for both full-time and part-time work (60% of unemployed people) in July 2015. In addition, it can be seen that more unemployed people were only looking for part-time work than only for full-time work. This provides important insights into job search preferences and experiences of unemployed people.

These more detailed data are available from the November 2015 issue of Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly publication (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) in tables 20a, 20b and 20c.

Graph showing work sought by unemployed people