For general information relating to TableBuilder or instructions on how to use features of the TableBuilder product, please refer to the TableBuilder information page.
Available data
Data is available monthly from August 2006. With the completion of the Labour Force modernisation project in September 2026, some data items will not be present in monthly data after March 2026, while new data items will begin from August 2026.
Some data items have been temporarily suspended from April 2026 onwards to allow further quality assurance testing. The ABS will provide updates when available.
For information on the concepts and data items collected in the LFS, see the data item guide.
Caution should be applied when comparing monthly data with quarterly data.
The LFS TableBuilder product includes monthly information on:
- Labour force status - employed, unemployed, not in the labour force
- For people in the labour force - unemployment rate, underemployment rate, participation rate
- For employed people - status in employment, full-time or part-time status, days and hours actually worked, hours usually worked, duration of employment, expectations of future employment, underemployment, reason for working fewer hours than usual in the reference week. See Hours worked guide
- For unemployed people - whether looked for full-time and/or part-time work, duration of job search, duration since last job and whether active steps taken to find work
- For people not in the labour force - reason not in the labour force, whether looking for work
- Socio-demographic information - sex, age, social marital status, relationship in household, family type, participation in school and tertiary education, highest year of school completed, level of highest educational attainment, birthplace and year of arrival in Australia
- Geography/Region (of usual residence) - state or territory, capital city / balance of state, and labour force regions (Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4)). See Regional labour market data guide.
New information, available from August 2026 onwards, includes monthly information on:
- Number of dependent students in family (aged 15 to 24 years)
- Type of employment (casual)
- Hours not worked
- Loss of job or retrenchment status in last 4 weeks
- For those not in the labour force, main activity for last 4 weeks.
The ABS updated its occupation standards classification in 2024. Occupation data from the September 2026 release onwards is categorised using the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, version 1.0 (OSCA).
Estimates from August 2006 to February 2026 are still coded to the previous standard (ANZSCO, 2013 v1.3) but will be updated to the OSCA classification in future TableBuilder releases.
Potential Transition Impacts
As part of the Labour Force modernisation program, the ABS made improvements to select questions in the Labour Force instrument. As a result, there will be a lower degree of comparability for the period before, during, and after the transition period for certain data items. These are:
- “Status in employment of main job”: new field descriptions have been added
- “Duration of job search” category is now focused on months, rather than weeks
- “Reason why worked less than usual hours” has an updated list of reasons. These changes have been applied to historical information to align all months available.
Some data items are temporarily suspended from publication whilst the ABS undertakes further quality assurance. Further updates will be provided as this work progresses.
- Relationships in household;
- Educational attendance (full-time, aged 15 to 24 years);
- Underemployment status;
- Whether preferred more hours (expanded);
- Whether preferred full-time or part-time hours (expanded);
- Number of hours preferred (total hours, expanded);
- Whether preferred and available for more hours.
Guidance on using regional (Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4)) data
In TableBuilder, regional LFS estimates are produced directly from the survey responses. As these regional estimates are based on smaller sample sizes in each region, they are of a lower level of statistical accuracy compared to those produced at the national and state and territory levels.
The ABS has released a new modelled regional labour market publication which contains the most accurate modelled estimates. The ABS recommends using the modelled estimates whenever possible (see Regional labour market data guide for more information).
Analysis using direct survey estimates in LFS TableBuilder are still possible, however, the ABS recommends using (moving) annual averages. For more information see Advice on Reporting Regional Labour Force Data.
Using TableBuilder to calculate Labour Force measures
Below is a table explaining how to calculate certain Labour Force measures using variables found in TableBuilder.
Due to perturbation and other factors, calculated measures will differ from the summary estimates in main publications.