Tourism Satellite Accounts: quarterly tourism labour statistics, Australia, experimental estimates methodology

Tourism jobs are not directly observable. A job becomes a tourism-related job when it has a direct impact on tourism activity. A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between a visitor and the worker. Indirect effects of tourism consumption is a broader notion that includes downstream effects of tourism demand and is out of scope for this publication.

Jobs can be measured as

• The main job of a person. If a person is employed in multiple jobs only the main job is included.
• Filled jobs. This measure is based on the number of jobs held by people employed in main jobs as well as secondary jobs.

Job counts represent the number of jobs on the last day of the reference period e.g. 31 March in the March quarter.

Tourism value added industry ratios are taken from the Tourism Satellite Account.

Jobs estimates are taken from the Australian Labour Account. 

The Labour Force Survey is used to derive estimates for full-time/part-time and male/female.

More detailed explanations are available in the Methodology sections of each of these sources. 

Tourism value added industry ratios are created with each annual Tourism Satellite Account. Refer to the Methodology of the Tourism Satellite Account for details on how the industry ratios are calculated. These ratios are then applied to the employment (filled jobs and main jobs) estimates for each industry to determine the corresponding figures for tourism. The employment estimates for each industry are sourced from the Australian Labour Account. It is important to note that this method assumes a direct correlation between the employment generated by tourism and the value added by tourism in each industry. However, there may be discrepancies in the timing between the increase or decrease in value added, particularly during periods of rapid inflationary growth, and changes in the number of jobs. 

As the current reference period for the Quarterly Tourism Labour Statistics (QTLS) is beyond the latest Tourism Satellite Account, tourism value added industry ratios are not available for the current period. Ratios from the latest period are therefore used. Care should be taken in interpreting the latest results during times of rapid economic change. 

Industry data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is used to derive ratios to split tourism jobs for each tourism industry into part-time, full-time, male and female. The LFS produces industry level information in February, May, August and November each year. February LFS data is used to calculate the March quarter tourism statistics, and similar for other quarters.

Several assumptions underlie the compilation of the QTLS. These include:

• Jobs in tourism related industries will generally provide goods and services to both visitors and non-visitors. 
• The contribution tourism activity makes to the economy by industry is equivalent to the contribution tourism activity has to the labour market.
• The structure of the economy generally changes slowly over time, therefore employment generated by tourism in each industry is directly related to value added generated by tourism in that year. This assumption holds well, except when there are sudden economic shocks that cause structural changes to the economy, e.g., a health pandemic, and/or significant changes in input costs (such as fuel). Ideally, the tourism value added ratios would be updated every quarter in the QTLS to reflect the current situation, however, this is not possible due to data availability issues.
• The distribution of jobs (full-time/part-time, male/female) within the tourism share of a particular industry is consistent with the employment patterns in the LFS for that industry.

Revisions are a necessary and expected part of accounts compilation as data sources (including the annual Tourism Satellite Account and Australian Labour Account) and processes are updated and improved over time. 

Tourism job numbers in the QTLS show the employment impacts of tourism activity. The QTLS is released within three months of the end of the reference quarter. The publication includes estimates of filled jobs and main jobs by tourism industry. Filled job estimates are also split by full-time/part-time employment and jobs filled by males and females.

The publication includes a range of commentary and analysis in the Key statistics section each quarter. In addition, the publication includes several Excel workbooks available in the Downloads section.

This publication and the 2023-24 Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) both use the quarterly Australian Labour Account to calculate tourism employment estimates. Data for this publication uses a later release of the Australian Labour Account and there may be small differences between the annualised employment estimates that can be calculated from this publication and those shown in the annual TSA.

The QTLS estimates are constructed based on the most accurate data and information available at the time of estimation, and robust methods, data confrontation and quality control processes are used to minimise the impact of measurement error. Nevertheless, the construction of these estimates involves some modelling assumptions. Modelling error may increase during periods of rapid change, for instance the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many industries and led to structural changes in the economy. 

The following table shows the correspondence between tourism employment industries and industries in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).