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REFOCUSING 6202.0.55.003 TOWARDS MAJOR REBENCHMARKING

QUARTERLY REBENCHMARKING AND THE MAGNITUDE OF REVISIONS

Since August 2015, Labour Force estimates have been ‘rebenchmarked’ on a quarterly basis, following an approach summarised in the article ‘Rebenchmarking Labour Force Estimates’, published in the February 2015 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).

To assist users in assessing the impact of revisions resulting from quarterly rebenchmarking, the ABS began producing a complete set of timeseries spreadsheets in Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003), and published these a week before the first issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) was released using the new benchmarks.

The below table shows that the magnitude of the revisions to benchmarks in 6202.0.55.003, compared with the 6202.0 published estimate a few weeks earlier, have been minimal, even for the states and territories with relatively greater population change, such as Western Australia. Employed persons estimates are generally revised on average by less than 0.1 per cent, and the headline rates by a small change at the second or third decimal place.

AVERAGE MAGNITUDE OF REVISIONS (IN ABSOLUTE TERMS) TO THE MOST RECENT ESTIMATE IN THE 2016-17 YEAR, 6202.0 compared to 6291.0.55.003

	NSW	Vic.	Qld.	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
Employed persons (%)	0.067	0.066	0.029	0.068	0.152	0.031	0.262	0.124	0.045
Employment to population ratio (ppts)	0.008	0.023	0.004	0.010	0.013	0.005	0.023	0.023	0.005
Unemployed rate (ppts)	0.002	0.003	0.001	0.002	0.001	0.002	0.006	0.005	0.001
Participation rate (ppts)	0.009	0.026	0.004	0.011	0.014	0.004	0.022	0.026	0.005

Since the magnitude of revisions resulting from quarterly rebenchmarking are minor, the Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003) release will be refocused from a quarterly release to a periodic release, used to communicate the outcomes of major rebenchmarking processes. This aligns with the use of this release, which has been very minimal outside of major rebenchmarking processes.

The release of Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates, January 2018 (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003) will therefore be the last quarterly release of this publication, and the next issue of this periodic release will therefore be Labour Force, Australia - Rebenchmarked Estimates, October 2018 (cat. no. 6202.0.55.003), which will include the outcomes of the major rebenchmarking of Labour Force estimates to final 2016 Census -based population estimates.

Quarterly rebenchmarking will continue, and will be reflected in the February, May, August and November issues of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0).