Employed
Employed persons include all persons aged 15 years or over who, during the survey reference week:
- worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers); or
- worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (ie contributing family workers); or
- were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
- away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week; or
- away from work for more than four weeks up to the end o f the reference week; or
- away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week; or
- away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement; or
- on strike or locked out; or
- on workers’ compensation and expected to return to their job; or
- were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.
Unemployed
Person aged 15 years or over who was not employed during the survey reference week, and:
-
had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and was available for work in the reference week; or
-
was waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.
Unemployment rate
For any one group, the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force in the same group.
Labour force
For any group, the sum of the persons who were employed or unemployed, as defined, in that reference week.
Participation rate
The labour force participation rate for any group within the population is the labour force component of that group, expressed as a percentage of the population of that group.
Full-time employed
Employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and others who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.
Part-time employed
Employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours per week (in all jobs) and who either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.
Long-term unemployed
Those unemployed persons whose duration of unemployment is 52 week or more.
Duration of unemployment
The period of time from when an unemployed person began looking for work, until the end of the survey reference week; or, in the period of time since an unemployed person last worked full-time for two weeks or more, until the end of the survey reference week, whichever was the shorter period, in any job regardless of whether it was full-time or part-time.
Employee
An employee is a person who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from the employer while working on a commission basis, tips, piece-rates, payments in kind, or a person who operates their own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.
Underemployed
Underemployed workers are employed persons who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:
- persons employed part-time who want to work more hours and are available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the four weeks subsequent to the survey; or
- persons employed full-time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available). It is assumed that these people wanted to work full-time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.
Discouraged job seeker
Persons with marginal attachment to the labour force who wanted to work and were available to start work within the next four weeks but whose main reason for not actively looking for work was that they believed they would not find a job for any of the following reasons:
- considered to be too young or too old by employers; or
- lacked necessary schooling, training, skills or experience; or
- difficulties because of language or ethnic background; or
- no jobs in their locality or line of work; or
- no jobs available at all.
Marginally attached to the labour force
Persons not in the labour force in the reference week, wanted to work, and:
- were actively looking for work but did not meet the availability criteria to be classified as unemployed; or
- were no actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks or could start work within four weeks if child care was available.
These measurements are subjective and are affected by the respondent’s own interpretation of the concepts.
Job leaver
Unemployed persons who have worked for two weeks or more in the past two years and left that job voluntarily - that is, because (for example): of unsatisfactory work arrangements/pay/hours; the job was a holiday job or they left the job to return to studies; or their last job was running their own business and they closed down or sold that business for reasons other than financial difficulties.
Job loser
Unemployed persons who have worked for two weeks or more in the past two years and left that job involuntarily: that is, they were laid off or retrenched from that job; left that job because of their own ill-health or injury; the job was seasonal or temporary; or their last job was running their own business and the business closed down because of financial difficulties.
Small business
Small business refers to management units with less than 20 employees in all industries except agriculture, where they have an estimated value of agricultural operations of between $22,500 and $400,000 (Source: ABS cat. no. 1321.0, Small Business in Australia, 2001).
For further information see:
- ABS cat.no. 6102.0, Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2005
- ABS cat. no. 1321.0, Small Business in Australia, 2001