Labour Force Survey products and data item guide

Guide to labour statistics

Learn about all the products and outputs we produce from the monthly Labour Force Survey and how to use them

Released
18/03/2025

Overview

We produce a range of publications that use data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). It can be challenging to choose which data product to use. This guide will help you understand which product is right for you and where to find it. The guide also provides information on the concepts and data items available from the LFS, and detailed information on the associated outputs.

The LFS provides information about the work activities of Australia's resident civilian population aged 15 years and older. It provides key figures on employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation, and hours worked for Australia, as well as the states and territories.

The methodology page has more information on how we produce the data.

Expanding access to LFS data

As outlined in recent and upcoming developments, the ABS is addressing data gaps identified in the White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities. As part of this work, the ABS has improved how users can access and interact with data from the LFS by producing a new LFS TableBuilder product.

Labour Force Survey products

LFS data are available in:

Labour Force, Australia is the first release. This product includes final Australia, state and territory level statistics on employment, unemployment, underemployment, underutilisation, participation, monthly and quarterly hours worked and gross flows.

Information is presented in a summary publication and pre-prepared spreadsheets.

The second release of data occurs one week later in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed. This publication includes spreadsheets with additional detail relating to the estimates published in Labour Force, Australia. Additional information is collected in the LFS each February, May, August, and November. This information is published with the second release of data for these months in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed. 

There are a variety of ways to access LFS data depending on your requirements.

LFS data are a key source of regional labour market information, to learn more see the Regional labour market data guide.

You can find more information about the different ABS data platforms on the Compare data services page.

Labour Force, Australia
  • Primary source of Labour Force data
  • Includes headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked for Australia
  • State and Territory level headline estimates
  • Original, Seasonally Adjusted and Trend data series
Labour Force, Australia, Detailed
  • Primary source of Labour Force data
  • Source of a wider range of labour market concepts and compositional breakdowns
  • Regional labour market data (SA4), specifically the modelled estimates
  • State and Territory level headline estimates
Labour Force Data Explorer
  • Online tool that presents data in a searchable, flexible and dynamic way
  • Automatically generate API calls to pull data into your own system
  • Includes small number of headline estimates and compositional breakdowns
  • Original, Seasonally Adjusted and Trend data series
Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia
  • Detailed longitudinal LFS microdata available in DataLab
  • Enables analysis of how the labour force status and other characteristics of respondents changes for each of the 8 months they are in the LFS
  • Contains data from each monthly LFS, along with data collected from labour supplementary surveys and multipurpose household surveys
  • Available from October 1982 onwards
Labour Force TableBuilder
  • Customise and save your own tables using LFS data
  • Wide range of labour market concepts and compositional breakdowns available
  • Contains data from August 2006 to July 2024
  • Monthly and quarterly data is combined
  • Includes International Standard Industry Classification (ISIC) and International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO)

LFS data are also a key input in the quarterly Labour Account, which combines multiple sources of data to create a consistent set of aggregate labour market statistics. The Labour Account is the best source of industry employment and jobs over time (see our Industry employment guide).

LFS products at a glance...

Product criteria

Dataset types

Labour Force Survey data is available in 2 dataset types, summary and unit record level.

Summary or aggregated data is the primary format for statistics available in Labour Force, Australia, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, and Data Explorer. Unit record level data is available as microdata from the Longitudinal Labour Force product and is used for customised analysis. The LFS TableBuilder product draws on unit record level data to enable you to produce tables customised to your specifications.

Key LFS data is available as original, seasonally adjusted and trend series data in Labour Force, Australia, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, and Data Explorer. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the effects of calendar related patterns (i.e. which happen at the same time every year). This allows other influences on the series to be more clearly recognised. Trend series data is smoothed seasonally adjusted data and reduces the impact of non-seasonal influences.

The ABS considers that trend series data provides a more reliable guide to the underlying direction of the data, and are more suitable for supporting most business decisions and policy advice.

For more information see Seasonal Adjustment and Changing Seasonality and Time Series Analysis FAQ

Customisation

There are a large range of pre-prepared tables available for download in the main LFS publications and Data Explorer. However, if the exact combination of information you are interested in is not available, the TableBuilder product offers more flexibility and customisation. 

The TableBuilder product provides a much larger range of information, including the only source of international classifications, i.e. the International Standard Industry Classification (ISIC) and International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO).

As the level of customisation increases, you need higher levels of statistical skill and understanding to use it. So for advanced users seeking detailed customised analysis of LFS data the Longitudinal Labour Force microdata product is available.

Cost and access

There are a variety of ways to access LFS data depending on your requirements. You can access the main LFS publications and pre-prepared tables for free on the ABS website. The LFS Data Explorer tables are available through API and on the Data Explorer website

The Longitudinal Labour Force product is only available in the DataLab environment. Specific project approval and online training need to be completed before access is granted. For more information see the DataLab access page.

Labour Force TableBuilder access is by organisation and also requires registration.

Inclusion of modelled unit records

Improvements to LFS estimation introduced in early 2024, have resulted in a mixture of direct and modelled unit records in LFS products. Inclusion of modelled unit records start from August 2016.

Direct unit records are household responses that are collected during the LFS enumeration period. The methodology page has more information on this process.

Modelled unit records use secondary data sources combined with specific benchmarks to model 2 per cent of the LFS sample. This results in more representative estimates of the Australian civilian population. More information is available in this article: Improvements to Labour Force estimation method.

The main LFS publications include all direct and all modelled unit records. To maintain usability, both the Longitudinal and TableBuilder products include a random sample of the modelled unit records along with all directly collected unit records.

Modelled regional labour market estimates

The LFS has traditionally been the most used source of regional labour market data. This is because the data is available more frequently than other data sources. However, the usefulness of the LFS regional estimates is limited by the smaller sample counts that contribute to each region.

The modelled regional labour force estimates overcome this by using the combined power of administrative data and statistical modelling with the direct unit records. The administrative data sources used include de-identified Single Touch Payroll data from the Australian Taxation Office and Youth Allowance and JobSeeker data from the Department of Social Services.

The ABS recommends using these over the direct survey estimates whenever possible. See the 'Modelled v direct estimates' section of the Regional labour market guide for more information.

Which product is right for me?

There are many different ways to interact and discover data from the Labour Force Survey. A good place to start is by defining the question you are trying to answer with LFS data. Below is a table that provides some examples to help you get started and find which product is right for you.

ProductExample uses / questions
Labour Force, Australia
  • What is the national unemployment rate?
  • How has the monthly hours worked by females changed over the last 5 years?
Labour Force, Australia, Detailed
  • What is the participation rate of people residing in Toowoomba (SA4 region)?
  • How many people born overseas are currently employed?
Labour Force Data Explorer
  • Best for setting up regular repetitive exports of headline estimates
Longitudinal Labour Force, Australia
  • Best for analysis of data over long periods of time, including labour force status transitions
Labour Force TableBuilder
  • What are the education attainment estimates of underemployed people?
  • Using the international standard classification of occupations, how many clerical support workers were there in December 2023?
Labour Account
  • What is the proportion of multiple job holders in the Construction industry?

Differences in estimates when using the longitudinal file and TableBuilder

In 2024, improvements were made to LFS estimation methods for some relatively small population groups within the sample that are traditionally hard to enumerate, by modelling records using auxiliary administrative data. While this has resulted in a small improvement in the quality of LFS estimates (published in Labour Force, Australia and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed), it does mean that there may be differences in LFS summary figures derived from the Longitudinal Labour Force dataset and LFS TableBuilder product. It is important to understand these differences when choosing how to access LFS data

The Longitudinal Labour Force microdata product contains a random subset of the modelled sample records resulting in a slight difference in aggregated estimates compared to the main publications. The TableBuilder product is based on the Longitudinal Labour Force dataset therefore, the same differences are present in both products. In addition, the TableBuilder product is subject to confidentiality restrictions specific to the TableBuilder format resulting in further small but random differences in aggregated totals.

This has a negligible impact on the underlying patterns of the data but will be more obvious for more complex customised tables.

Additional information on the impact on LFS data is available in this article: Revisions from improvements to Labour Force estimation method.

Concepts and data items

This section contains definitions for the concepts and data items published in Labour Force, Australia and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed.

More detailed information is available in Labour Statistics: Concepts Sources and Methods, describing the history of changes to the Labour Force Survey and the alignment of concepts and data items to conceptual frameworks and international definitions.

Concepts and data items A

Concepts and data items B - E

Concepts and data items F - K

Concepts and data items L - N

Concepts and data items O - S

Concepts and data items T - Z

Detailed output information

The detailed output, including the data items contained within each pre-prepared spreadsheet available for download, is shown below.

Labour Force, Australia outputs

Labour Force, Australia, Detailed outputs

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6103.0.

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