FUTURE DIRECTIONS
ACCESS TO MICRODATA
The ABS will provide access to a sample of the Integrated Dataset through Microdata: Employee Earnings and Jobs, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 6311.0.55.001). The microdata will be made available as a de-identified unit record file, released with the approval of the Australian Statistician, via the ABS Data Laboratory. To mitigate risks of disclosure (of persons and businesses) the microdata file will be a sample of the Integrated Dataset, representative of the in-scope employee level records. The size of the sample is expected to be approximately 10% (about 1 million employees). Further information regarding the microdata product will be released on the ABS website in due course.
TRANSFORMING FOR THE FUTURE
Over the next five years, the ABS will fundamentally transform across all aspects of the organisation to achieve the vision of unleashing the power of statistics for a better Australia. A key focus during the transformation is to better utilise data collected for administrative purposes, and improving the availability and use of Australia's statistical assets. A future LEED is one such statistical solution to meet increasing demands to deliver more and improved information on the Australian labour market.
As outlined in the Introduction, a future LEED will provide a longitudinal view of linked employer and employee data, based on person and business level data from the ATO. The creation of an enduring LEED will aid in building the capacity to undertake analysis of the drivers of labour market change, firm-level productivity, as well as sustainable regional economies. It will complement the current labour statistics produced by the ABS, and improve the evidence base for policy development and evaluation, leading to more targeted expenditure of government funds.
The ABS is exploring the viability of producing an ongoing tax-based LEED as part of the transformation agenda. While a future LEED is seen as a valuable statistical asset, the ABS requires users to clearly articulate how this information will provide new insights on key public policy issues. As part of this process, the ABS will be engaging with key stakeholders to gather user requirements so that a fit for purpose new solutions project is developed.
REFINED INTEGRATION METHODOLOGY
The construction of the Integrated Dataset and the experimental statistics on employee earnings and jobs required a number of assumptions to be made. These include assumptions about the person level derived data items (such as Main job and Earnings), and the process for allocating each ABN within a complex business to a single TAU within the EG. Further investigations into the assumptions and apportioning methods should be pursued as part of the future LEED development. This could be achieved through gaining a better understanding of the relationships in the PIT data and related ABS data sources; securing additional data items in the PIT data (such as Occupation labels); as well as improving the coverage and quality of the ABN-TAU mapping through the ABSBR profiling process. In addition, the ABS could partner with key stakeholders to gather expertise on data cleaning and editing strategies, as well as the integration methodology to enhance the utility of the LEED. Further to this, the ABS has already committed to refine the integration methodology used to construct the EABLD, which would also support the development of the future LEED.
INVITATION TO COMMENT
If you wish to provide feedback on the LEED Foundation Projects and the creation of an enduring LEED as part of the ABS' transformation agenda, please feel free to contact the Labour and Income Branch on (02) 6252 7206 or via labour.statistics@abs.gov.au. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.
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