Dumb Question

[piggybank]

Well what do you expect coming from me!!

Who is in charge of the statistics for unemployment?

The reason I ask is that I have been in and out of employment (part-time/casual) for the last 3 years since I was last in full-time employment. Given that I do not qualify for any unemployment benefit (or even a concession card) because my wife earns more than the cut off limit, how would the government be aware/unaware that I am unemployed?

In other words am I included in the unemployed statistics, or not?

I hope I have made myself understood.

Cheers
PB

 

[SirRumpole]

Well what do you expect coming from me!!

Who is in charge of the statistics for unemployment?

The reason I ask is that I have been in and out of employment (part-time/casual) for the last 3 years since I was last in full-time employment. Given that I do not qualify for any unemployment benefit (or even a concession card) because my wife earns more than the cut off limit, how would the government be aware/unaware that I am unemployed?

In other words am I included in the unemployed statistics, or not?

I hope I have made myself understood.

Cheers
PB

I think the Australian Bureau of Statistics does that data.


To be regarded as unemployed I think you have to do less than 2 hours of work per week.

If you do casual work I don't think you would count as being unemployed.

 

[Ves]

Hi piggybank

That's a pretty good question.

My understanding is that they do not track this on an individual by individual basis (it'd be too hard to collect and collate up-to-date statistics each month).

It's done by way of survey of a cross-section of the population. There's been a lot of debate over the years on just how reflective / accurate this is.

Does this link help?

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6202.0Explanatory Notes1Mar 2016?OpenDocument

 

[SirRumpole]

Well what do you expect coming from me!!

Who is in charge of the statistics for unemployment?

The reason I ask is that I have been in and out of employment (part-time/casual) for the last 3 years since I was last in full-time employment. Given that I do not qualify for any unemployment benefit (or even a concession card) because my wife earns more than the cut off limit, how would the government be aware/unaware that I am unemployed?

In other words am I included in the unemployed statistics, or not?

I hope I have made myself understood.

Cheers
PB

I think the Australian Bureau of Statistics does that data.


To be regarded as unemployed I think you have to do less than 2 hours of work per week.

If you do casual work I don't think you would count as being unemployed.

 

[pixel]

I think the Australian Bureau of Statistics does that data.


To be regarded as unemployed I think you have to do less than 2 hours of work per week.

If you do casual work I don't think you would count as being unemployed.

I can't vouch for it, but a Social Worker I spoke to last week claimed the cut-off is 20 hours per week.

 

[SirRumpole]

I can't vouch for it, but a Social Worker I spoke to last week claimed the cut-off is 20 hours per week.

From the ABS site

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/0/FBE517ECA9B07F63CA257D0E001AC7D4?OpenDocument

KEY POINTS:

The ABS uses internationally agreed standards in defining unemployment and the key indicators have been measured in a consistent way since 1966.
To be classified as unemployed a person needs to meet the following three criteria:
- not working more than one hour in the reference week;
- actively looking for work in previous four weeks; and
- be available to start work in the reference week.
The ABS produces a range of measures, in addition to the unemployment rate, to help users understand the extent of underutilised labour supply, such as underemployment.

 

[McLovin]

Hi piggybank

That's a pretty good question.

My understanding is that they do not track this on an individual by individual basis (it'd be too hard to collect and collate up-to-date statistics each month).

It's done by way of survey of a cross-section of the population. There's been a lot of debate over the years on just how reflective / accurate this is.

Does this link help?

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6202.0Explanatory Notes1Mar 2016?OpenDocument

As I understand it's some sort of rolling cohort of people (. So once you are included in the survey you stay in the survey for x number of months. I remember it being explained to me by a mate who's a retired ABS statistician. IIRC, the ABS methodology differs to the Roy Morgan methodology on this aspect.

The actual definition of unemployed the ABS uses is the international standard set by the International Labour Organisation. The ABS gets a fair bit of unfair flack, imo. The criticism of of the CPI last year with some pundits, "experts" according to whoever was interviewing them, saying it was totally unrealistic because it contains the price of fax machines was another great example.

ETA: Your link, which I should have read first, explains it!

LABOUR FORCE SURVEY

3 The Labour Force Survey is based on a multi-stage area sample of private dwellings (currently approximately 26,000 houses, flats, etc.) and a list sample of non-private dwellings (hotels, motels, etc.), and covers approximately 0.32% of the civilian population of Australia aged 15 years and over.

4 Information is obtained from the occupants of selected dwellings by specially trained interviewers using computer-assisted interviewing, or self-completion online.

5 Households selected for the Labour Force Survey are interviewed each month for eight months, with one-eighth of the sample being replaced each month. The first interview is generally conducted face-to-face. Subsequent interviews are conducted by telephone (if acceptable to the respondent).

 

[Ves]

As I understand it's some sort of rolling cohort of people (. So once you are included in the survey you stay in the survey for x number of months. I remember it being explained to me by a mate who's a retired ABS statistician. IIRC, the ABS methodology differs to the Roy Morgan methodology on this aspect.

The actual definition of unemployed the ABS uses is the international standard set by the International Labour Organisation. The ABS gets a fair bit of unfair flack, imo. The criticism of of the CPI last year with some pundits, "experts" according to whoever was interviewing them, saying it was totally unrealistic because it contains the price of fax machines was another great example.

ETA: Your link, which I should have read first, explains it!

I can safely say I learnt something looking this up and reading some of the responses to this thread (especially your own).

Definitely not a dumb question.

 

[piggybank]

To be regarded as unemployed I think you have to do less than 2 hours of work per week.

Hi SirRumpole,

Who only does 2 hours of work per week? I presume you mean 2 hours of paid work, not volunteer work?

Cheers

 

[SirRumpole]

Hi SirRumpole,

Who only does 2 hours of work per week? I presume you mean 2 hours of paid work, not volunteer work?

Cheers

Sorry PB, I don't write the rules. Please see the ABS documents quoted in this thread.

 

[piggybank]

Sorry PB, I don't write the rules. Please see the ABS documents quoted in this thread.

Sorry for not having looked at your comments more closely. However, I was concentrating on writing up on other threads.