Labour Account: the best source for industry employment and jobs data
Traditionally, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) has been the primary source of information on employment by industry over time. However, industry information is not what the Labour Force Survey is primarily designed to measure, which is the labour force status of the population (that is, whether people are employed, unemployed or not in labour force) and their key demographics.
In July 2017, the ABS released a new labour statistics product, the Labour Account, which brings together a broad range of labour market statistics into one framework to be compared and confronted to produce a coherent picture of the Australia labour market, and its industries.
The ABS considers the Labour Account to be the best source of headline information on employment by industry. It has been specifically designed to produce the most comprehensive estimates for industries in Australia, drawing upon a broad range of data sources. It provides an estimate of the number of jobs, hours worked, and associated labour income that align very well with industry measures of output in the economy. In the future, it is expected to lead to improvements in the measurement of productivity.
The comparative strength of the industry information in the Labour Account is that it is generally drawn from how businesses have been officially categorised, rather than how employed people (most of whom are employees) describe the business they work in. The Labour Account shows that there are a number of people in the labour market who, when responding to the Labour Force Survey, will describe the business activities that are most relevant to their job, rather than the actual industry of the business that pays their wages or salary. For example, an employee of a business engaged in engineering construction who works on a coal mine site may incorrectly describe their industry of employment as coal mining and not construction.
However, the Labour Account cannot provide all of the information that survey data can, and there is still an important role for other detailed information, including Labour Force Survey statistics (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003) and also the relatively new Jobs in Australia (cat. no. 6160.0), which provide insights into the characteristics and distribution of people and their jobs in the labour market.
For more information on the various sources of labour statistics refer to the Navigating ABS Labour Statistics spotlight.
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