Update on the Labour Force Modernisation and future release plans

The ABS will be completing the Labour Force Modernisation project at the end of September 2026. From this time, all Monthly Population Survey (MPS) respondents will have an improved digital experience, and users will have greater access to labour force statistics, including more frequent insights on selected topics.

This article provides an update on the changes from the Labour Force Modernisation project and outlines how Labour Force statistics will be published from September 2026 reference period onwards. The ABS will release a further article in the coming months outlining our release plans for the Labour Supplementary Survey statistics.

If you would like to provide feedback or seek clarification on any of these changes, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

The ABS has improved respondent experience by making our questionnaire more accessible on smartphones and tablets, and not just computers. We now have around two-thirds of our responses coming from our online questionnaire. We have also made participating in our survey faster and simpler by grouping related topics, removing duplicated questions and pre-filling answers for selected questions where there are no statistical impacts, such as a respondent’s name.

For users, we are now collecting more frequent information on a range of key statistics that reflect the contemporary Australian labour market and society. Labour Force information that was previously asked on a quarterly basis in February, May, August and November, such as industry and occupation of employment, are now being asked every month. Detailed information such as Participation, Job Search and Mobility, and Characteristics of Employment will also be asked every month to those who are participating in their last month of the survey.

The Multi-purpose Household Survey (MPHS) will no longer be collected as part of the MPS from July 2026. The MPHS will be conducted as a separate survey for 2026-27 and beyond. This approach will help to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Labour Force Survey and reduce burden on people who complete our surveys. It also provides us with greater flexibility on topics asked in the MPHS, of which the ABS will continue to consult with stakeholders about future topics.

There are no changes to the scope, coverage or sample design of the Labour Force Survey. Key questions asked in the Labour Force Survey that are used to calculate headline estimates have not changed. However, small improvements have been made to the supporting information that provides guidance to respondents about how to accurately answer the survey questions.

The below diagram provides a visualisation of these changes.

As outlined in How the ABS quality assures Labour Force data during times of change, the ABS has been undertaking thorough quality assurance processes for all aspects of the Labour Force Survey cycle during the Labour Force Modernisation project. This includes monitoring how the data collection is tracking and ensuring that data is accurate and is representing real-world economic changes. We also moved the Labour Force publication later by one week during this project to allow additional time for quality assurance checks on the data.

Through this process, we have been able to confirm that there have been no changes detected from our transformation project to the headline labour force estimates. This includes consistent representation across the old and new platforms despite higher webform uptake, and no unexpected changes to respondent behaviour because of additional guidance information.

The selection and estimation process used to produce Labour Force statistics are designed to produce high-quality estimates for the headline Labour Force data. The detailed data published in the Labour Force Microdata products (Labour Force TableBuilder and Longitudinal Labour Force Microdata) are subject to higher degrees of sampling variability depending on who is in the survey and how they interpret and respond to our questions. As such, there may be increased variability from different rotation patterns throughout the Labour Force Modernisation period, as well as from improvements to detailed labour force questions. The ABS recommends interpreting Labour Force microdata from the commencement of the transition period with these additional considerations applied.

As noted in the Labour Force, Australia, July 2026 release, the ABS has adjusted the weights of one rotation group in Victoria in June and July. We have investigated this rotation group thoroughly to guarantee no impacts from the transition and have adjusted the weights of it in accordance with our standard practices. We will continue to monitor this rotation group as they progress through our survey and adjust their weight accordingly.

As noted in Labour Force, Australia, May 2026, the ABS identified an error in how the underemployment and underutilisation data was being calculated in our new systems, after its initial release. We have since corrected the data and republished Tables X28 and X29 on Wednesday 8th July.

We have also identified a potential change in how people interpret the current educational attendance question, which is asked for those aged between 15-24 who are not attending high school. We have paused publishing this data in Tables 014 and 015 while we undertake further investigations into the results and will provide an update in the coming months with the outcome.

Before implementing the Labour Force Modernisation, our approach had been to ask respondents supplementary questions in February and August. To account for the impact on respondent behaviour, we applied adjustment factors to our seasonally adjusted and trend estimates in those months.

Labour Force Modernisation has enabled us to introduce a new survey collection model which involves collecting the supplementary data each month from those in their last month of the survey, rather than from all respondents in February and August. This change should mean that respondent behaviour in February and August should not be influenced by having additional questions.

As a result of this change, adjustment factors in February and August will be removed. The ABS has sought external advice on our approach to removing these factors from our seasonal adjustment. All survey estimates are subject to sampling error. ABS enjoys high response rates, and our sampling errors are low (typically around +/-0.1% for estimates of the unemployment rate). Removing these factors is expected to have a small impact on the variability of estimates for August and February. Estimates remain fit-for-purpose. These changes will come into effect in the August 2026 data, and we will use our quality assurance checks over coming years to continue to monitor this.

The Labour Force, Australia release will return to being published on the third Thursday of the month from the September 2026 release onwards. This release contains the headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked. 

Upcoming release dates for Labour Force, Australia are: 

• Labour Force, Australia, September – Released 15 October 2026 
• Labour Force, Australia, October – Released 19 November 2026 
• Labour Force, Australia, November – Released 17 December 2026 
• Labour Force, Australia, December – Released 21 January 2027 
• Labour Force, Australia, January – Released 18 February 2027 

The full details on what tables will be included in this publication can be found in the Labour Force table names section of this article, and draft table shells can be found in the Table shells and Concordance section of this article.

The Longitudinal Labour Force Survey (LLFS) will be reinstated from the September 2026 reference period and will be released on the fourth Wednesday of each month. This will be published two days earlier than our release schedule prior to the transformation. The LLFS provides detailed longitudinal microdata through DataLab to enable analysis of how the labour force status and other respondent characteristics, changes over their 8 months in the LFS. This publication has a higher degree of sample variability, particularly for detailed information. There have also been improvements to questions for data items included in this release as part of Labour Force Modernisation. As such, there will be a lower degree of comparability for the period before, during, and after the modernisation period for certain data items.

 Upcoming release dates for Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia are:

• Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, September – Released 21 October 2026 
• Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, October – Released 25 November 2026 
• Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, November – Released 23 December 2026 
• Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, December – Released 27 January 2027 
• Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia, January – Released 24 February 2027 

For full details on how to access this product and what data variables are included, please see Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia.

The ABS will be publishing the Labour Force Survey Tablebuilder product on a monthly basis from the September 2026 reference period onwards. This data will be published on the fourth Friday of each month, and allows users to customise and save their own tables for different requirements using detailed Labour Force data.

Upcoming release dates are: 

• Labour Force TableBuilder, September – Released 23 October 2026
• Labour Force TableBuilder, October – Released 27 November 2026
• Labour Force TableBuilder, November and December – Released 29 January 2027
• Labour Force TableBuilder, January – Released 26 February 2027

For full details on how to access this product and what data variables are included, please see TableBuilder: Labour Force Survey.

The ABS will be launching a new Modelled regional labour force publication on 22 October 2026 with September data. This publication will continue to be published every month on the fourth Thursday of the month complementing the Labour Force, Australia release. We are aiming to publish new SA3 regional Labour Force estimates in this publication, as well as moving the MLF1 table from Labour Force, Australia into this release. This additional week provides the ABS with time to quality assure more detailed breakdowns of regional labour market data, as well as to obtain more up to date Single Touch Payroll data, which will be subject to less revision.

The u-series data will continue to be published monthly on the fourth Friday of the month. The ABS will be aiming to integrate this data into Labour Force, Australia by mid-2027.

Full monthly updates to Labour Force Survey-PLIDA linkages will resume from the September 2026 reference period release.

If you would like to provide feedback or seek clarification on any of the output changes, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

The ABS made some changes to Labour Force questions to ensure that Labour Force statistics continue to reflect a contemporary Australian labour market and society. This includes collecting some data items monthly instead of quarterly, modifying categories for respondents to select, and updating our occupation classifications.

The below section outlines the changes for some key data items and tables. Please see the Labour Force, Australia methodology page to access our full questionnaire.

The ABS updated the occupation standards classification in 2024 for Australian statistics. From September 2026 reference period onwards, all Labour Force survey occupation data will be categorised using the OSCA classifications. We have backcasted estimates coded to OSCA from 2014 onwards, and will continue developing backcasted estimates for time periods prior to 2014.

The Labour Force survey is now asking a range of questions monthly instead of quarterly. This includes the industry and occupation questions. These tables have been on pause during the modernisation period, whilst the ABS undertakes additional quality assurance on these changes.

These data items will now be published on a monthly frequency moving forward. The ABS will continue to publish historical timeseries on a quarterly basis, and are not currently intending to convert historical quarterly data to monthly, due to limited indicators of historical monthly seasonality. Users will be able to distinguish which tables contain monthly or quarterly data by each tables’ name (i.e. Table 021_MTH for monthly and Table 021_QTR for quarterly). For pivot tables, both quarterly and monthly data will be published within the same spreadsheet on different data tabs.

The ABS will not be publishing monthly seasonally adjusted industry data at this stage. Table 020. Employed persons by Industry division of main job (ANZSIC) - Trend, Seasonally adjusted, and Original (quarterly table) will continue to be published quarterly in the February, May, August, and November data releases. We will review this in three to five years' time, once enough data has been collected, which is required to seasonally adjust series.

The ABS has renamed the Labour Force tables using more understandable and streamlined numbering following the combining of the Labour Force, Australia and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed releases.

For details on updated table names for tables that had continued to be published throughout the modernisation period, please see the previously released Upcoming changes to labour force survey outputs article. This previously released article also outlines which tables will no longer be published.

The below table outlines the updated table names for the tables that we will resume publishing from the September data publication onwards in Labour Force, Australia.

The below list shows all the tables in order that will be published from September data release onwards in Labour Force, Australia. 

If you would like to provide feedback or seek clarification on any of these changes, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.