Page 69 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1499 Hayley Collett
100,000 (or 0.8%) more than reported by households in the monthly Labour
Force Survey.
The second reason for the difference is that, in line with international
standards, not everyone who has a job is in the scope of the Labour Force
Survey. Similarly, some forms of work are not captured by reporting
businesses. People whose main job is in the permanent military forces are not
reported by either businesses or households, and household representatives
are not asked to report on jobs held by people intending to stay in Australia
for less than 12 months. No employment by children under 15 years, either
paid or unpaid, is reported by households. In addition, unpaid contributions
of work to a family business or farm by family members of any age are not
reported by businesses. If the ABS adjusts for these known differences, then
the number of filled jobs reported by businesses would be raised to 13.4
million, and the number of filled jobs reported by households would increase
to 13.9 million. The remaining difference of 510,000 jobs, or 3.7% of the
household based estimate, reflects the unavoidable measurement limitations
related to measuring filled jobs and employment.
Likely sources of measurement error in household based data include lack
of knowledge about the jobs held by household members on the part of the
person responding to the Labour Force Survey. On the business survey side,
there is no single ABS business survey that collects employment data from
businesses across the whole economy, and business based estimates of filled
jobs are compiled from multiple sources, potentially resulting in a larger
overall total measurement error than in any of the individual sources. Both
business and household surveys are also subject to sampling variability.
Divergences can further arise when estimating missing data, or modelling is
required to offset data gaps and lags in the supply of information.
How many hours were worked in Australia during 2017-18?
Based on hours worked reported by households, and after adjusting for
defence force personnel, short-term visitors and children, 21,198 million hours
were worked in 2017-18. Businesses reported the number of "hours paid for"
at 21,946 million hours. These numbers imply that hours paid for but not
worked, mainly various forms of paid leave, exceeded hours of unpaid
overtime (hours worked but not paid for). This pattern was consistent over
time at a whole of economy scale.

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