APPENDIX 4 FORTHCOMING CHANGES TO ABS LABOUR FORCE AND SUPPLEMENTARY SURVEYS


INTRODUCTION

From July 2014 the ABS is improving the content of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and labour supplementary surveys. The improvements will result in:

• the key measures of underemployment and labour underutilisation released monthly rather than quarterly;
• more information released monthly and quarterly;
• a less fragmented labour supplementary survey program; and
• datasets with interrelated topics combined to better enable analysis of key labour market linkages between groups and topics.

The improved program has three key components:

• the monthly and quarterly LFS with expanded content collected from July and August, 2014, respectively;
• the Characteristics of Employment (CoE) supplementary survey to be conducted annually each August from 2014; and
• the Participation, Job Search and Labour Mobility supplementary survey to be conducted annually each February from 2015.

These improvements were previously outlined in July 2012 in the Information Paper: Outcomes of the Labour Household Surveys Content Review (cat. no. 6107.0), but details of the key components are summarised below.


MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY LABOUR FORCE SURVEY

The improvements to the content of the LFS will result in more information being available with key measures released more frequently. They will also improve the conceptual robustness and relevance of the survey and better enable the identification of critical labour market linkages.

The main improvements being made to the LFS are summarised below:

• increased frequency of underemployment and labour underutilisation rates, from quarterly to monthly;
• new items introduced into the LFS
  • monthly educational attainment;
  • quarterly volume measures of labour underutilisation;
  • quarterly leave entitlements;
  • quarterly employment by public and private sector; and
  • quarterly retrenchments.
• more detailed duration with current employer/business for those with their employer for one year or more;
• conceptual improvements
  • consolidating key elements of the Employment Type classification into a revised Status in Employment classification, to provide a single labour market relevant classification that will be used in outputs of the ABS' household survey program;
  • refinement to the collection of full-time and part-time job search; and
  • making the LFS gross flows data more representative of the full sample.

To allow analysis of new data items before they are first published, new monthly data items will be assessed for at least six months, and new quarterly items for at least three quarters, before being published.


CHARACTERISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT (COE) SUPPLEMENTARY SURVEY

The new CoE supplementary survey will integrate key elements of the Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership (EEBTUM) survey and the Forms of Employment (FOE) survey (including Working Time Arrangements and Labour Hire modules).

The supplementary survey will describe the key features of people's employment and inform users on the following labour market issues:

• earnings - in main job and second job;
• employment arrangements;
• independent contracting;
• fixed-term employment;
• trade union membership;
• labour hire;
• working patterns;
• job stability;
• job flexibility; and
• overwork.

Including this data in a single survey will enable analysis of the key elements of people's employment and related outcomes. While the EEBTUM and FOE surveys have each collected information describing people's employment, each only provided a partial picture of people's employment and related outcomes. As the CoE survey will be conducted as a supplement to the labour force survey in August each year, the items collected each quarter in the LFS will be included on the dataset and incorporated in survey output where appropriate.

With additional content added to the monthly and quarterly LFS it has been necessary to reduce the content in CoE compared to the previous labour supplementary survey program. Data items with a relatively lower priority compared to others will cease being collected in the labour supplementary survey program. These items are outlined in Table 3 within this appendix. Many of these items will be collected in the Work, Life and Family Survey, which is planned to next be conducted in 2019.

To minimise respondent burden and enable the planned content to fit within the available resources for the survey, the CoE supplementary survey will comprise a core annual component and two biennial components included on a rotating basis. This approach also reflects that some data items do not change significantly from year to year.

The core component will contain information on earnings (weekly and hourly earnings in main job and second job), fixed term employment and independent contracting. The first of the two biennial components will contain information on trade union membership, labour hire, job stability and more detail on independent contracting. The second of the two biennial components will contain information on overwork, job flexibility and working patterns. The data items to be collected in the LFS and CoE are outlined in Tables 1 and 2 respectively within this appendix.


DATA ITEMS

Table 1

The data items to be collected in the LFS from July 2014 are outlined below:

DATA ITEMS TO BE COLLECTED IN THE LABOUR FORCE SURVEY
			Data items
Labour force survey, monthly items - collected from July 2014
	All persons
		Age	1
		Sex	2
		Social marital status	3
		State or territory of usual residence	4
		Region (SA4) of usual residence	5
		Country of birth	6
		Period since arrival	7
		Relationship in household	8
		Number of dependents aged 15 to 24 years	9
		Number of dependents aged 0 to 24 years	10
		Educational attendance	11
		Current study	12
		Level of highest educational attainment	13
		Level of highest non-school qualification	14
		Highest year of school completed	15
		Main field of highest educational attainment	16
		Main field of highest non-school qualification	17
		Labour force status - current month	18
		Labour force status - previous month	19
	Employed persons
		Status in employment in main job	20
		Whether held more than one job	21
		Number of jobs or businesses held last week (held concurrently)	22
		Main reason for absence from work	23
		Hours actually worked in main job	24
		Hours actually worked in all jobs	25
		Hours usually worked in main job	26
		Hours usually worked in all jobs	27
		Full-time or part-time status in all jobs	28
		Full-time or part-time status in main job	29
		Underemployment status	30
		Reason worked less hours than usual	31
		Whether preferred to work more hours than usual	32
		Whether available to start work with more hours	33
		Whether prefer and available for more full-time or part-time hours	34
	Unemployed persons
		Duration of job search	35
		Full-time or part-time status of unemployment	36
		Steps taken to find work	37
	Persons not in the labour force
		Not in the labour force status	38
		Time until available to start work (if actively looking for work)	39
	Derived measures
		Employment to population ratio	40
		Labour force participation rate	41
		Unemployment rate	42
		Underemployment rate	43
		Labour force underutilisation rate	44
		Aggregate monthly hours worked	45
Labour force survey, quarterly items - collected from August 2014
	All persons
		Whether ceased any job in the previous 3 months	46
		Reasons ceased working in each job or business in the previous 3 months	47
		Whether retrenched from any job in the previous 3 months	48
	Employed persons
		Continuous duration with current employer/business	49
		Expected future duration with current employer/business	50
		Reason expected future duration with current employer/business < 1 year	51
		Sector of main job	52
		Occupation of main job	53
		Industry of main job	54
		Preferred total number of weekly hours	55
		Preferred number of extra weekly hours	56
	Employees
		Whether entitled to paid holiday leave	57
		Whether entitled to paid sick leave	58
		Whether had paid leave entitlements	59
	Unemployed persons
		Preferred number of hours of work	60
		Industry of last job (if less than 2 years ago)	61
		Occupation of last job (if less than 2 years ago)	62
		Reason for leaving last job (if less than 2 years ago)	63
	Derived measures
		Retrenchment rate	64
		Volume unemployment rate	65
		Volume underemployment rate	66
		Volume labour underutilisation rate	67

Table 2

In addition to the regular monthly and quarterly LFS items, the data items to be collected in the CoE survey are outlined below:

DATA ITEMS TO BE COLLECTED IN CHARACTERISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT
				Data items
Characteristics of employment August 2014
	Annual core items
		Earnings
			Weekly earnings in main job	1
			Weekly earnings in second job	2
			Weekly earnings in all jobs	3
			Hours paid for in main job	4
			Hours paid for in second job	5
			Hours paid for in all jobs	6
			Hourly earnings in main job	7
			Hourly earnings in second job	8
			Hourly earnings in all jobs	9
			Frequency of pay in main job	10
		Employment arrangements
			Employment arrangements in main job	11
			Status in employment of second job	12
			Whether an independent contractor in main job	13
		Fixed-term employment
			Whether employment had a set completion date/event	14
			Whether worked on a fixed term basis in main job	15
			Length of fixed term contract	16
			Time until set completion date/event	17
	Biennial items
		Trade union membership
			Trade union membership	18
			Length of current trade union membership	19
			Trade union member history	20
		Independent contracting
			Whether has more than one active contract	21
			Whether usually able to work on more than one active contract	22
			Whether able to sub-contract own work	23
			Whether has authority over own working procedures	24
		Labour hire
			Whether paid by an employment agency/labour hire firm, outsource company	25
			Whether currently registered with an employment agency/labour hire firm	26
			Whether registered with a labour hire firm/employment agency in the last 12 months	27
			Whether found current job/assignment through employment agency or labour hire firm	28
		Job stability
			Whether earnings varied from one pay period to the next	29
			Whether guaranteed a minimum number of hours each week	30
			Whether usually works the same number of hours each week	31
			Whether considered main job to be casual	32
Characteristics of employment August 2015
	Annual core items
		Earnings
			Weekly earnings in main job	1
			Weekly earnings in second job	2
			Weekly earnings in all jobs	3
			Hours paid for in main job	4
			Hours paid for in second job	5
			Hours paid for in all jobs	6
			Hourly earnings in main job	7
			Hourly earnings in second job	8
			Hourly earnings in all jobs	9
			Frequency of pay in main job	10
		Employment arrangements
			Employment arrangements in main job	11
			Status in employment of second job	12
			Whether an independent contractor in main job	13
		Fixed-term employment
			Whether employment had a set completion date/event	14
			Whether worked on a fixed term basis in main job	15
			Length of fixed term contract	16
			Time until set completion date/event	17
	Biennial items
		Overwork
			Whether would prefer to work less hours (in all jobs)	33
			Number of hours would prefer to work (in all jobs)	34
		Job flexibility
			Whether had agreement with employer to work flexible hours	35
			Whether usually worked at home in main job	36
			Main reason for working at home in main job	37
		Working patterns
			Whether usually works shift work	38
			Type of shift usually worked	39
			Whether usually works extra hours or overtime	40
			Whether usually required to be on-call or standby	41
			Days of the week on which person usually works (all jobs)	42
			Number of days a week that person usually does some work (all jobs)	43
			Whether usually works weekdays and/or weekends (all jobs)	44

Table 3

With additional content added to the monthly and quarterly LFS it has been necessary to reduce the content in CoE compared to the previous labour supplementary survey program. Data items with a relatively lower priority compared to others will cease being collected in the labour supplementary survey program. These items are outlined below. Many of these items will be collected in the Work, Life and Family Survey, which is planned to next be conducted in 2019.

Data items no longer collected in labour supplementary surveys
		Data items
Employee Earnings Benefits and Trade Union Membership items (annual)
	Whether received casual loading as part of pay in main job	1
	Whether paid a set amount or by the hour	2
	Whether paid at the full adult rate	3
	Whether salary sacrificed to superannuation in last pay period	4
	Whether salary sacrificed to superannuation in last 12 months	5
	Whether able to choose when holidays are taken in main job	6
	Whether entitled to paid long service leave in main job	7
	Whether entitled to paid maternity/paternity leave in main job	8
	Type of paid leave entitlement in main job	9
	Number of paid leave entitlements in main job	10
	Duration since previously a trade union member	11
	Size of location in main job	12
	Whether current employer made superannuation contributions on behalf of employee in main job	13
	Employment type in main job (redundant with revision to Status in Employment classification)	14
Forms of employment items (annual)
	Form of employment in main job (Independent Contractors identified in COE annually)	15
	Employment type in main job (redundant with revision to Status in Employment classification)	16
	Number of employees in main job	17
	Whether expects contract/employment to be renewed	18
	Whether entitled to paid maternity/paternity leave in main job	19
	Whether entitled to paid long service leave in main job	20
	Whether current contract prevents similar work for another client	21
	Main reason unable to subcontract own work	22
	Who has authority over own working procedures	23
	Whether responsible for arranging own workers' compensation	24
	Whether responsible for arranging own liability insurance	25
	Whether responsible for arranging own superannuation contributions	26
	Whether had a say in start/finish times	27
Forms of employment; Working time arrangements module items (3 yearly)
	Whether had any say in the days in which worked	28
	Whether received casual loading as part of pay	29
	Whether had a say in start/finish times	30
	Whether able to choose to work extra hours to take time off	31
	Whether able to choose when holidays are taken	32
	How far in advance work schedule was known	33
	How compensated for overtime / extra hours worked	34
	Hours usually worked in a shift in main job	35
	Whether usually worked any hours between 7pm and 7am in all jobs	36
Forms of employment; Labour hire module items (3 yearly)
	Whether still registered with the same agency, firm or company	37
	Number of work assignments through labour hire form/employment agency in the last 12 months	38
	Whether usually had continuous/ongoing work from a labour hire firm/employment agency	39
	All reasons for using a labour hire firm/employment agency	40
	Main reason for using a labour hire firm/employment agency	41
Forms of employment; Locations of work module items (6 yearly)
	All locations of work in main job	42
	Main location of work in main job	43
	Number of locations of work in main job	44
	State or territory of workplace in main job	45
	Region of workplace in main job	46
	Whether had an arrangement with employer to work at home in main job	47
	Hours actually worked from home in main job	48
	Hours usually worked from home in main job	49
	Use of information technology at home in main job	50
	Occupation of second job	51
	Industry of second job	52
	All locations of work in second job	53
	Main location of work in second job	54
	Number of locations of work in second job	55
	Whether usually worked at home in second job	56
	Whether worked at home in second job	57
	Whether had an arrangement with employer to work at home in second job	58
	Hours actually worked in second job	59
	Hours actually worked at home in second job	60
	Hours usually worked at home in second job	61
	Main reason for working at home in second job	62
	Whether entitled to paid holiday leave in second job	63
	Whether entitled to paid sick leave in second job	64
	Whether had paid leave entitlements in second job	65
	Use of information technology at home in second job	66
	Occupation in job worked at home	67
	Industry in job worked at home	68
	Status in employment in job worked at home	69
	Whether worked at home in main or second job	70
	Whether had an arrangement with employer to work at home in main or second job	71
	Hours actually worked at home in main and second job	72
	Use of information technology at home in main or second job	73