Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia methodology

Non-sampling error may occur in any collection, whether it is based on a sample or a full count such as a census. Sources of non-sampling error include non-response, errors in reporting by respondents or recording of answers by interviewers and errors in coding and processing data. Every effort is made to reduce non-sampling error by careful design and testing of questionnaires, training and supervision of interviewers, and extensive editing and quality control procedures at all stages of data processing.

Standard errors can be calculated using the estimates (counts or percentages) and the corresponding RSEs. Since the RSE is obtained by expressing the standard error as a percentage of the estimate, recalculating the standard error is obtained by multiplying the estimate by the RSE. 

People who were taking active steps to find work. Active steps comprise:

• wrote, phoned or applied in person to an employer for work
• answered an advertisement for a job on the Internet, in a newspaper or on noticeboards
• had an interview with an employer
• contacted friends or relatives
• took steps to purchase or start up own business
• advertised or tendered for work
• registered with a Workforce Australia provider
• registered with other employment agency.
   

Actual hours of work refers to a specified reference period (e.g. a week) and includes:

• hours actually worked during normal periods of work
• time spent in addition to hours worked during normal periods of work (including overtime)
• time spent at the place of work on activities such as the preparation of the workplace, repairs and maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, and the preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports
• time spent at the place of work waiting or standing by due to machinery or process breakdown, accident, lack of supplies, power or internet access, etc.
• time corresponding to short rest periods (resting time) including tea and coffee breaks or prayer breaks
• travel time connected to work (excluding commuting time), and
• training and skills enhancement related to the job or employer.
   

Excluded are:

• hours paid for but not worked, such as paid annual leave, public holidays or paid sick leave
• meal breaks (e.g. lunch breaks)
• paid and unpaid time 'on call'
• time spent on travel to and from work when no productive activity for the job is performed (e.g. commuting time), and
• time off during working hours to attend outside educational activities, even if it is authorised, e.g. those not connected to the job or employer.

For multiple job holders, PJSM includes separate measure of actual hours worked in main job and in all jobs.

Age of the youngest child, 15 years and under, in the household.

Refers to people who were available to start work or working more hours in the reference week, or in the next four weeks.

People who were available to start work within four weeks or, for people with children aged 12 years and under, could start work within four weeks if suitable child care was available.

Employees were considered to have had some change in work if they had been with their current employer for one year or more and reported that, in the last 12 months, they had:

• been promoted
• transferred to a different position
• changed usual weekly hours, or
• changed occupation.
   

All usual residents of Australia aged 15 years and over except members of the permanent defence forces, certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments customarily excluded from census and estimated population counts, overseas residents in Australia, and members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

People who work without pay in an economic enterprise operated by a relative.

People who were employed and worked less than their usual hours during the reference week for economic reasons (i.e. due to being 'stood down', or there was insufficient or no work available). Unless otherwise stated, this includes both full-time and part-time workers. 

People who were not classified as employed or unemployed and answered 'no' when asked if they would like a job.

People with marginal attachment to the labour force who did not have a job to go or return to, who wanted to work and were available to start work within the next four weeks but whose main reason for not actively looking for work was that they believed they would not find a job for any of the following reasons:

• considered to be too young or too old by employers
• believes ill health or disability discourages employers
• lacked necessary schooling, training, skills or experience
• difficulties because of language or ethnic background
• no jobs in their locality or line of work
• no jobs in suitable hours; or
• no jobs at all.
   

For full-time workers who worked fewer than 35 hours in the reference week due to economic reasons, refers to the number of weeks they have been working fewer than 35 hours a week.

For part-time workers who would prefer to work more hours, refers to the number of weeks they have wanted to work more hours.

The period of time from when an unemployed person began looking for work until the end of the reference week; or the period of time since an unemployed person last worked in any job until the end of the reference week; whichever was the shorter period. 

The elapsed time since ceasing the last job.

Economic reasons for full-time workers having worked fewer than 35 hours in the reference week are:

• there was no work or not enough work available, e.g. due to material shortages, or
• they were stood down.

Does not include

• Bad weather or plant breakdown
• On strike, locked out, or industrial dispute

All people aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind, in a job or business or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers), or
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers), or
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
  • on strike or locked out
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job; or
• were owner managers who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

An employed person who does not operate their own incorporated or unincorporated enterprise. An employee works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, on a commission basis with a retainer, tips, piece-rates, or payment in kind.

Two or more people, one of whom is at least 15 years of age, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering; and who are usually resident in the same household. The basis of a family is formed by identifying the presence of a couple relationship, lone parent-child relationship or other blood relationship. Some households will, therefore, contain more than one family unit.

Includes caring for ill or elderly person or family member, caring for children and other family considerations.

People who preferred to work 35 hours or more a week.

Whether worked full-time or part-time in their last job based on the weekly hours they usually worked. 

Employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and others who, although usually working fewer than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

People waiting to start, within four weeks of the end of the reference week, a new job that they have already obtained (and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then). Under International Labour Organisation (ILO) guidelines, these people do not have to be actively looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

People who were waiting to start a job already obtained. Also includes people who had a job but, up to the end of the reference week, had been away from work without pay for four weeks or longer and had not been actively looking for work.

Refers to people who had worked before and were either out of work or had worked for a different employer before starting their current job.

An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that undertake similar economic activities to produce goods and/or services. In this publication, industry refers to ANZSIC Division as classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0).

The intention of people to work or look for work in the 12 months following the interview.

Refers to whether people were prepared to move to another state or territory if offered a suitable job.

Any paid employment, full-time or part-time. Includes jobs where people worked for an employer and jobs where people were running their own businesses.

Job attachment extends beyond the definition of employment to include all people who have an attachment to a job. People with job attachment include:

• people who worked during the reference week (employed)
• people who had a job but were away from work during the reference week (regardless of how long they had been away from work)
• people waiting to start a new job or waiting to return to a job,
• people on workers compensation,
• people in a job who did not work during the reference week and usually work no hours.

For any group, people who were employed or unemployed, as defined.

People who are classified as voluntarily ceasing their last job.

Level of highest educational attainment identifies the highest achievement a person has attained in any area of study. It is not a measurement of the relative importance of different fields of study but a ranking of qualifications and other educational attainments regardless of the particular area of study or the type of institution in which the study was undertaken. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0) Level of education classification.

A person's level of highest non-school qualification is the highest qualification a person has attained in any area of formal study other than school study. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0) Level of education classification.

People whose duration of current period of insufficient work is 12 months or more.

Looked for work with more hours at some time in the last 12 months.

People who are classified as involuntarily ceasing their last job. Includes retrenchments, redundancies, dismissals, and losing a job due to ill health or injury.

The main activity of persons who are not in the labour force since they last worked or looked for work (or in the last 12 months if they haven't worked in the last year).

The main difficulty in finding work during the current period of unemployment (or in the last 12 months if they haven't working in the last year).

The job in which most hours are usually worked.

Persons who were not in the labour force in the reference week, wanted to work and:

• were actively looking for work but did not meet the availability criterion to be classified as unemployed; or
• were not actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks; or
• had a job to go or return to but were not available to start in the reference week.
   

The criteria for determining those in the labour force are based on activity (i.e. working or looking for work) and availability to start work during the reference week. The criteria associated with marginal attachment to the labour force, in particular the concepts of wanting to work and reasons for not actively looking for work, are more subjective. Hence, the measurement against these criteria is affected by the respondent’s own interpretation of the concepts used. An individual respondent’s interpretation may be affected by their work aspirations, as well as family, economic and other commitments.

For more information see article Understanding the Australian Labour Force Using ABS Statistics in Labour Force, Australia (6202.0).

Non-economic reasons for full-time workers having worked fewer than 35 hours in the reference week include:

• annual leave, holidays, flextime, or long service leave
• own illness, injury or sick leave
• standard work arrangements or shift work
• personal reasons, studying, caring for sick or injured family members
• maternity, paternity or parental leave
• bad weather or plant breakdown
• on strike, locked out, or industrial dispute
• end of seasonal work.
   

Refers to people who were not available to start work (or work with more hours) either in the reference week, or in the four weeks following the interview.

People who are not fully employed comprise part-time workers who would prefer to work more hours, and full-time workers who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons.

The number of separate offers of employment received during the current period of unemployment (or in the last 12 months if they haven't worked in the last year).

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation which are grouped together for the purposes of classification. In this publication, occupation refers to Major Group and Sub-Major Group as defined by ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.2 (cat. no. 1220.0).

People who work in their own incorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity which is registered as a separate legal entity to its members or owners (also known as a limited liability company). These people are sometimes classified as employees. They can work alone or in a business with employees.

People who operate their own unincorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity in which the owner and the business are legally inseparable, so that the owner is liable for any business debts that are incurred. Includes those engaged independently in a trade or profession. They can work alone or in a business with employees.

People who preferred to work one to 34 hours a week.

Employed persons who usually worked fewer than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work during the reference week.

People with personal reasons for not actively looking for work include:

• own short-term illness or injury
• own long-term health condition or disability
• attending an educational institution
• had no need or want to work
• working in an unpaid voluntary job
• problems with access to transport
• moved house or holidays.
   

Persons not in the labour force can be divided into those who are potential workers, and those who are not. People who are potential workers satisfy some, but not all, of the criteria required to be classified as unemployed.

Persons not in the labour force are considered to be potential workers if they:

• wanted to work and were actively looking for work (but, unlike unemployed persons, were not available to start work in the reference week), or
• wanted to work and were not actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks, or
• wanted to work but were not actively looking for work and were not available to start work within four weeks, or
• had a job to go or return to but were not available to start in the reference week.
   

Persons not in the labour force are not potential workers if they:

• did not want to work, or
• were permanently unable to work.

Potential workers includes:

• people not currently employed and who want to work, and
• people not classified as employed but have an attachment to a job.

Potential workers with job attachment are people who are not classified as employed but have an attachment to a job. It includes:

• people waiting to start a new job or waiting to return to a job,
• people away from work without pay for four weeks or more,
• people on workers compensation who did not expect, or did not know, if they would return to their same employer, and
• people in a job who did not work during the reference week and usually work no hours.

Potential workers includes all people who want to work and are not currently employed. It includes:

• people classified as unemployed,
• people not in the labour force who were classified as marginally attached, and
• people who wanted to work but were not actively looking and not available to start work within four weeks. 

The number of hours unemployed persons would like to work each week.

The number of extra hours a week an underemployed worker would have preferred to work.

The total number of hours per week an underemployed worker would prefer to work.

Classifies reasons for turning down job offers in current period of unemployment according to the following categories:

• Unsuitable job conditions
  • unsatisfactory pay or conditions
  • not in locality or line of work
  • hours unsuitable
  • unwilling to move state or city
  • too far to travel
• Personal reasons
  • own short-term illness or injury
  • own long-term health condition or disability
  • pregnancy
  • welfare or pension payments may be affected
  • returned to study
• Family reasons
  • child care
  • caring for an ill or elderly person or family member
• Other
  • waiting to start another job or starting a new business
  • other reasons
  • did not know.
     

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation which are grouped together for the purposes of classification. In this publication, skill level of occupation refers to the skill levels defined for each occupation in the ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.2 (cat. no. 1220.0).

Classifies employed persons according to the following categories on the basis of their current job:

• Employees
  • with paid leave entitlements
  • without paid leave entitlements
• Owner managers with employees (employer)
  • Owner manager of incorporated enterprise with employees
  • Owner manager of unincorporated enterprise with employees
• Owner managers without employees (own account worker)
  • Owner manager of incorporated enterprise without employees
  • Owner manager of unincorporated enterprise without employees
• Contributing family workers.
   

People who are in a situation where an employer is unable to provide useful work for its employees, for a particular period of time, for circumstances beyond its control.

People who were employed and who would prefer to work more hours than they usually work and were available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the next four weeks. Unless otherwise stated, this includes both full-time and part-time workers. 

A suitable job is:

• any job for which the person is qualified (if applicable), is capable of performing and which provides adequate job conditions (including pay, hours, travel to work, etc.)
• a job that would be accepted by the person irrespective of whether a move was required.
   

Underemployed workers are people who are employed and would prefer, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:

• part-time workers who would prefer to work more hours than they usually work and were available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the next four weeks; and
• full-time workers who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available). It is assumed that these people would prefer to work full time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.
   

Underemployed workers are people who are employed and would prefer, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:

• People who would prefer to work more hours than they usually work and were available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the next four weeks (structural underemployed workers); and
• People who worked fewer hours in the reference week for economic reasons, such as being 'stood' down or insufficient work being available (cyclical underemployed workers).

It is possible for people to be in both types of underemployment - people who were stood down and also preferred more hours than usual.
 

The sum of the number of people unemployed and the number of the people in underemployment, expressed as a proportion of the labour force.

People aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week; or
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week, and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.
   

For any group, the number of unemployed people expressed as a percentage of the labour force in the same group.

Usual hours of work refers to a typical period rather than the hours worked in a specified reference period. The concept of usual hours applies both to people at work and to people temporarily absent from work, and is defined as the hours worked during a typical week or day. Actual hours worked (for a specific reference period) may differ from usual hours worked due to illness, vacation, strike, overtime work, a change of job, or similar reasons.

People not in the labour force who were not actively looking for work who answered 'yes' or 'maybe' when asked if they would like a job, as well as those people not in the labour force who were actively looking. It is assumed those people actively looking want a job.

The entitlement of employees to either paid holiday leave or paid sick leave (or both) in their current job. People employed in their own business or who were contributing family workers were not asked questions about paid leave entitlements.

Employees who were not entitled to, or did not know whether they were entitled to, paid holiday leave and paid sick leave in their current job.

1. Reasons provided by respondents in this item are not mutually exclusive categories.

• Due to changes made to the LFS questionnaire in July 2024, the PJSM questionnaire for February 2025 has also been revised. Some questions related to wanting to work and whether available to work were previously asked in PJSM and are now sourced directly from LFS. Other changes include:
• Successful and unsuccessful job search activity has been expanded to include new steps to find work. Unsuccessful job search activity now focuses on the last four weeks, rather than the last 12 months.
• Difficulties looking for work has been expanded to include the entire last 12 months, rather than the current period of unemployment (less than 12 months).
• Duration of insufficient work is now collected from all underemployed workers. Published estimates remain on the original scope of part-time workers only for timeseries comparisons.
• Additional questions were added to explore different avenues for improving and expanding the scope of job mobility data, drawing on the methods used to measure quarterly retrenchment rates in LFS. Experimental estimates based on the expanded scope will be published in a future article. Currently published estimates remain on the original scope.
• Data related to the refusal of job offers is no longer collected.
• Table 7 in Potential Workers has been renamed from 'Number of job offers while looking for work' to 'Looking for work', as job offer data is no longer available.
• The Excel spreadsheets for potential workers have been redesigned to incorporate timeseries data back to 2015, with optional age or state and territory breakdowns.

• The ABS has implemented some minor changes in how it accounts for some relatively small population groups within the sample. This has resulted in revisions back to February 2017.
• Population benchmarks were revised back to February 2017 to incorporate the latest ERP, based on final 2021 Census-based population estimates.

• References to "jobactive Australia" were replaced with "Workforce Australia."
• Trend factor adjustment for estimation was re-instated after being suspended in 2020, with estimates revised back to February 2015.
• Population benchmarks were revised back to February 2017 to incorporate the latest ERP, based on preliminary rebasing of the population estimates to the 2021 Census.
• Additional information was included in Table 1 of Job mobility (pre-calculated job mobility rates) and Table 4 of Potential workers (specific childcare reasons for not looking for work).

• New table formats, which included state and territory data in all tables. Tables were also renumbered under their respective topic pages. 
• PJSM microdata released in DataLab for the first time, as a supplementary file for the Longitudinal Labour Force microdata.
• Release of PJSM data into TableBuilder delayed due to preparations for the release of Census 2021 data into TableBuilder.
• Underemployed workers topic page released one month later to incorporate underemployment data from the May 2022 Labour Force Survey. 

• Publication split into 3 releases: Underemployed workers, Potential workers and Job mobility
• Suspension of trend factor adjustments and a change to seasonally adjusted factors as a result of COVID-19
• Introduction of “Potential workers” as a broader presentation of unused labour supply. This expands upon and complements the alternative measure of people “marginally attached” to the labour force. 
• Revisions to people who “had a job to go to” to include some people who had a job but were previously excluded because they were unavailable to start within 4 weeks. 
• The Data downloads (Excel spreadsheets) were redesigned to adopt the timeseries format, which simplified and consolidated the suite of data downloads down to a single set of 22 spreadsheets. This format also facilitates automatic downloads and “data scraping” due to the use of unique IDs for each timeseries of data. 
• Improvements were made to the PJSM TableBuilder to simplify the way the data items were presented, increase the usability and increase the range of data items. Data items are now grouped under 19 conceptual groups

• Impacts from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were minimal in February 2020 as there was a relatively low number of confirmed cases in Australia at this point. 
• The 2020 bushfires had a minimal impact on PJSM in February 2020, with most of the disruption to survey operations occurring earlier in January. 

• Tablebuilder released on the same day as the main publication, with data back to 2015 for the first time
• Trend factor adjustments applied to underemployment estimates for the first time
• Skill level of last job introduced to outputs
• Revisions to industry and occupation data back to 2015 based on improved coding of responses. 
• Relationship in household data suspended due to an issue with family coding.
• Due to severe flooding in Townsville during February 2019, data for this region was imputed. The imputation drew upon previous information that had been collected from Townsville. 
• Feature article: Understanding labour supply
• From the archives: Underemployment, 1962 vs 2019 and 1985 vs 2019.  

• Regular rebenchmarking to historical estimates introduced to reflect most up-to-date population benchmarks
• Trend factor adjustments introduced to reduce seasonal and irregular effects on estimates.
• Introduction of people who “had a job to go to” into the marginal attachment framework, highlighting people who reported having a job but were not classified as employed (waiting to start a new job, or away from work for more than 4 weeks without pay). 
• Extension of time series data in Tables 1, 2, 3, 12 and 17 (for this release only). 
• Feature article: The impact of employment downturns and recovery cycles on labour force participation, 1981 to 2018.

• Extended Labour Force Underutilisation rate first introduced. This was previously published in Australian Labour Market Statistics (cat. no. 6105.0)

• First TableBuilder release

• First issue

• Bridging survey - Persons Not In the Labour Force (PNILF), Underemployed Workers (UEW) and Job Search Experience (JSE), (cat. No. 6226.0.55.001)
• These surveys were previously run in July (JSE) and September (PNILF and UEW). They were run for the first time in February before integrated into PJSM in 2015.