Managing the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on labour force statistics
The ABS is currently monitoring for potential impacts from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Labour Force statistics and will continue to do so for the period of the pandemic.
Quality assurance of data for February did not identify any notable impact to headline statistics. It is important to note that the reference weeks for February fell in the first half of the month, at a point where there was only a relatively low number of confirmed COVID-19 cases within Australia and before it was declared a global pandemic.
As with other major disruption to the economy, early impacts are usually most evident in the Monthly hours worked in all jobs series (Table 19). Additional information, such as the reason people worked fewer hours than usual, is available within Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery, due for release on 26 March.
The ABS intends to profile some of the information on the reason people worked fewer hours than usual, which can be found in pivot tables EM2a and EM2b, on 26 March. The ABS will include additional advice in that summary, noting that some caution needs to be exercised when using original data at more disaggregated levels, as they are subject to larger sampling variability and seasonal patterns.
The ABS will also be actively managing the potential risks from COVID-19 to data collection operations. Around 90% of responses to the Labour Force Survey are provided through telephone interviews or online, leaving around 10% involving face-to-face interviews. Respondents in the survey may note changes in how the ABS contacts or approaches them over the coming months, and acknowledges the tremendous support that the Australia community is continuing to provide in supporting high quality and critically important Labour Force statistics.
On 18 March, the ABS also released some interactive employment maps based on the most recent data from Jobs in Australia, which is based on summary administrative data, to support a regional assessment of potential impacts of COVID-19 on employment.
Managing the impact of the bushfires on labour force statistics
Bushfires resulted in disruption to ABS data collection operations in some regions in New South Wales and Victoria during January 2020. A few areas in New South Wales, particularly within the ‘Capital Region’, were also unable to be surveyed in February 2020. These areas amounted to around half the sample which was unable to be surveyed in January 2020 in the state.
As with January data, the ABS confirmed that the disruption from the bushfires did not have a notable impact on key headline statistics and that no additional statistical interventions were required.
Region level data for the New South Wales regions of the ‘Capital Region’, ‘Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven’ and ‘Mid North Coast’ for January 2020 will not be published in the February 2020 Labour Force, Australia, Detailed - Electronic Delivery. February 2020 estimates for the ‘Capital Region’ will also not be published.
The ABS expects to resume publishing these estimates with the release of March 2020 data. January 2020 data for 'Latrobe - Gippsland', in Victoria, will be available with the February release.
Managing the impact of the Townsville floods in February 2019
Flooding in Townsville in February 2019 resulted in a major disruption to the operation of the Labour Force Survey. Given the severity of these disruptions, which affected almost the entire region, 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 ABS re-assessed this imputation and has not revised the imputed data. However, users of the Townsville data, and totals for ‘Rest of Queensland’ data, should still exercise some extra caution when looking at yearly and monthly movements in February 2020.