ANNUAL DATACUBES

Three data cubes are released annually in this publication Australian Labour Market Statistics, July 2011 (cat. no. 6105.0). Two of these data cubes provide expanded information on labour force underutilisation; while the third provides a time series for forms of employment.



EXTENDED LABOUR FORCE UNDERUTILISATION RATE - DATA CUBE 5

The extended labour force underutilisation rate takes the measure of underutilised labour beyond what is published in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202). In addition to the unemployed and the underemployed, this measure includes two groups of people with marginal attachment to the labour force:

• persons actively looking for work, who were not available to start work in the reference week, but were available to start work within four weeks; and
• discouraged jobseekers, who are wanting to work, who are available to start work within four weeks, and whose main reason for not looking for work was that they believed they would not find a job for labour market related reasons.

The annual extended labour force underutilisation rate data cube has been updated for 2010 using estimates from Labour Force, Australia, September 2010 (cat. no. 6202.0) and Persons not in the Labour Force, Australia, September 2010 (cat. no. 6220.0).

For more information see the Explanatory Notes tab contained within the data cube and the Information Paper: Measures of Labour Underutilisation, 2001 (cat. no. 6296.0).



VOLUME MEASURES OF LABOUR UNDERUTILISATION - DATA CUBE 6

The ABS measures labour underutilisation using two approaches. Measures such as the headline unemployment rate are based on counts of people (headcounts), and indicate the proportion of the population whose labour is underutilised. In addition to these headcount measures, the ABS also produces annual volume measures of labour underutilisation, which are based on the hours of available labour that are unused. These hours-based measures are valuable in analysing and utilising spare capacity within the labour force.

Underutilised hours are comprised of:

• The number of hours of work sought by unemployed workers;
• The number of additional hours sought by part-time underemployed workers; and
• The difference between the number of hours usually worked and actually worked in the reference week by full-time underemployed people.

The annual volume measures of labour underutilisation data cube has been updated using estimates from Job Search Experience, Australia, July 2010 (cat. no. 6222.0), Underemployed Workers, Australia, September 2010 (cat. no. 6265) and Labour Force, Australia, August 2010 (cat. no. 6202.0).

For more information see the Explanatory Notes tab contained within the data cube and the Technical Report: Volume Measures of Labour Underutilisation in the October 2009 edition of Australian Labour Market Statistics (cat. no. 6105.0)



EMPLOYMENT TYPE - DATA CUBE 7

The ABS publishes annual time series on different types of employment arrangements. These include estimates of employees who are not entitled to paid sick leave, paid holiday leave or both (used as one measure of 'casual' employees), and people who operate their own business. The employment type data cube has been updated using estimates from the Forms of Employment, Australia, November 2010 (cat. no. 6359.0) publication.

The updated data cube contains Forms of Employment Survey data from 2008 to 2010. For the period from 1992 to 2007, employment type estimates were derived from the Labour Force Survey and the Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership Survey. For further information regarding the change in data source, refer to the explanatory notes within the employment type data cube.

For more information see the Explanatory Notes tab contained within the data cube, the Spotlight article: "Employment type" in Australian Labour Market Statistics, July 2008 (cat. no. 6105.0), and the Feature article: "Changes in types of employment" in Australian Labour Market Statistics, October 2004 (cat. no. 6105.0).

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