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Industry of Employment

Industry of Employment (INDP)

This variable describes the industry in which employed people aged 15 and over work.

The questions relating to Industry of Employment (INDP) were first asked in the 1911 Census. Further information on Census Topics 1911–2011 can be found in How Australia Takes a Census (cat. no. 2903.0).

The non-response rate for this variable was 1.1% (1.4% in 2006). Unlike some other Census variables the non-response rate is not affected by persons imputed into dwellings that did not return a Census Form, as INDP is only applicable for persons with a labour force status of employed. More information is available from the 2011 Census non-response quality statement.

INDP is mainly coded using written responses about the business name and address of a person's employer (questions 40 and 41 on the Census Household Form) and on the type of industry and main goods or services produced by the business or their employer (questions 42 and 43 on the Census Household Form). In the first instance, industry of employment is obtained by matching business name and address responses to ABS lists of business names for which main industry activity is already known. The remaining responses are coded using text and mark box responses about type of industry and text responses about main goods or services produced.

Industry coding is reliant on a variety of processes. All text response fields that contribute to industry coding are first auto-repaired before being sent through three autocoding indexes: the Groomed Business Name Index (GBNI), the Business Name Index (BNI), and the Activity index. This text repair and automatic coding process resulted in approximately 70.0% of all responses being coded. The remaining 30.0% of records that did not successfully achieve a code in autocoding were examined by ABS clerical staff and independently assessed for an Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) code. When completing their Census Form, some people provide responses which cannot be coded. In these instances, an 'Inadequately Described' code is allocated during processing. There was little change in the overall proportion of these responses, which for 2011 comprised 1.24% of the data (decreasing from 1.25% in 2006).

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006 (Revision 1.0) (cat. no. 1292.0), released in 2006, was used to code data for INDP. The 2011 Census also saw the introduction of an improved coding index for INDP on Interviewer Household Forms (IHF), which are primarily used in discrete Indigenous communities across Australia. This index has led to improved and more accurate industry data pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Please note, however, that this improvement has led to a break in time series and 2006 data may not be comparable with 2011.

There were no changes to three of the four main questions used to to derive ANZSIC codes (i.e. questions 40, 41 and 43). The type of industry question (question 42 on the Census Household Form) saw the inclusion of 'Retailing' and 'Cafes, restaurants and take-aways', and the removal of 'Retailing (incl. Take-aways)' and 'Pubs, cafes and restaurants'. These changes to the form were a result of analysis of the 2006 Census.

More information on INDP is available in the 2011 Census Dictionary (cat. no. 2901.0).

Questions 40, 41, 42 and 43 as they appeared on the 2011 Census Household Form




Text only versions of these questions are also available.


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2011 Census Dictionary

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