For advice on reporting data from this product, please refer to: Advice on reporting regional labour force data.
Queensland Flood 2011
Due to the flooding in Queensland in January 2011, the Relative Standard Errors (RSE) for January 2011 vary across labour market regions and are higher than normal in some. The RSEs for the Darling Downs-South West and Ipswich City labour market regions are approximately 50% higher, while the RSEs for the Brisbane City Inner Ring labour market region increased by approximately 25%. The Brisbane City Outer Ring, West Moreton and Mackay-Fitzroy-Central West labour market regions have RSEs approximately 10% higher. All other labour market regions have minimal differences. From February 2011, the data returns to normal. Refer to the article Impact of the floods on the Labour Force Survey in the January 2011 issue of Labour Force, Australia, (cat. no. 6202.0) for more information.
Labour force sample post 2011 Census
The labour force sample selected after the 2011 Census was phased-in over four months from May to August 2013. See the article titled "New Labour Force Sample Design" in the May 2013 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) for more information. During phase in of the new sample, standard errors associated with key labour force data are expected to increase by approximately 10% at a national level, however increased standard errors and variability in the estimates may be more evident in detailed regional data during this time.
Townsville Flood 2019 (Data Cubes LM1, LM9, RM1 and RM3)
Flooding in Townsville in February 2019 resulted in a major disruption to the operation of the Labour Force Survey. As a result, there was a very low sample of responding households in the region in February.
Given the severity of these disruptions and to ensure that this loss of sample did not affect data for Australia and Queensland, the ABS imputed sample for Townsville for February 2019. The imputation drew upon previous information that had recently been collected from people in Townsville. The imputation may have resulted in a slight overestimation of hours worked in Queensland in February 2019, given hours worked in Townsville may have been lower during the floods.
Following the collection of March 2019 data from Townsville, the February data was re-assessed and has not been revised. The ABS will continue to monitor the data over coming months and in February 2020.
Users of the matched sample analysis should also exercise some caution when looking at Queensland data between January, February and March, given the effect of the imputation for Townsville.
During 2018, the ABS estimated that employed persons in Townsville accounted for around 1 per cent of all employed persons in Australia, around 4 per cent of employed persons in Queensland, and around 9 per cent of employed persons in the regions in Queensland outside of Brisbane.