Labour Economics Office - Queensland
Office Specific Information
The Queensland Labour Economics Office (LEO) is a small team of labour market analysts. Our focus is servicing the information needs of DEEWR, both at a national and local level. If you have a request for analytical work you would like the LEO to do, you must either work for or be contracted to DEEWR, work for another government agency or work for an Area Consultative Committee. For any requests for work on your behalf, please initially contact the Manager, LEO with any request for analytical work.
The LEO:
- monitors labour force statistics for Queensland;
- prepares regional briefings on Queensland areas;
- monitors the condition of the Queensland economy with an emphasis on its labour market;
- surveys employers in Queensland to assess which occupations are in shortage in Queensland;
- assesses labour market conditions for visa applications for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
- Please note:
- We cannot undertake research of a commercial nature, and in the employment placement market must remain competitively neutral in the provision of services to providers of employment placement services.
- Our ability to respond to other ad hoc requests will depend upon available staff resources.
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Staff and Functions
If you have a detailed enquiry or do not work for DEEWR please contact the Manager.
The Queensland Labour Economics Office analyses labour force statistics for Queensland and Australia and monitors industry and labour market developments within the State. It generates a range of regular statistical products covering basic labour force indicators and the industries and occupations of employment in Queensland. Specific regional labour force briefs and analyses of Job Network and ABS statistics can also be produced for internal clients.
Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data is available by ABS Labour Force Regions. The Queensland LEO’s regular statistical products contain labour force data for the following regions:
- Australia, Queensland
- Major Statistical Regions: Brisbane; Balance of Queensland
- Statistical Regions: Brisbane City Inner Ring; Brisbane City Outer Ring; South & East Brisbane Balance; North & West Brisbane Balance; South & East Moreton; North & West Moreton; Wide Bay-Burnett; Darling Downs-South West; Mackay-Fitzroy-Central West; Northern-North West Qld; Far North Queensland
- Other: Gold Coast City
The LEO’s regular statistical products may be available upon request, subject to copyright and policy restrictions. Youth labour market statistics are also available for the same regions as described above.
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Occupational research and analysis
The Queensland LEO monitors trends in occupational demand and identifies actual and emerging skills in demand. You can access research concerning skills and occupations at the Employment/Publications list. The Queensland LEO is not able to release assessments of demand in Queensland for specific occupations. Only the information in the above link is available.
Migration assessments and research
The Queensland LEO performs research and analysis on general issues regarding the labour market implications of migration. This work feeds into Departmental publications and is not available directly from the Queensland LEO. Details of these publications are available on the Employment/Publications list. The Queensland LEO cannot answer inquiries from individuals about their likelihood of securing employment in Australia.
Introduction
The resources to other sites on this page are provided as a service to our users. Many of these resources are to pages that contain commentary on the Australian economy and labour market and may therefore contain material of a speculative nature. DEEWR disclaims any responsibility for any of the content at any of the sites linked to from this page.
By linking to these pages DEEWR is not endorsing any of the material contained at any of these sites and the Commonwealth, its officers, employees or agents disclaim responsibility for any loss, howsoever caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise, arising out of any use made of material obtained through the use of these resources.
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Explanation of technical terms used in employment statistics
The following is a glossary of terms and concepts associated with statistics concerning the Australian Labour Market. Its source is the Australian Bureau of Statistics publication 6202.0 The Labour Market.
Includes writing, telephoning or applying in person to an employer for work; answering an advertisement for a job; checking factory noticeboards or the touchscreens at the Centrelink offices; being registered with Centrelink as a jobseeker; checking or registering with any other employment agency; advertising or tendering for work; and contacting friends or relatives.
Persons aged 15 to 19 enrolled full time at secondary or high schools in the reference week.
Persons aged 15 to 24 enrolled full time at a TAFE college, university, or other educational institution in the reference week.
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Employed
Civilian persons over 15 who, in the week of the Labour Force Survey:
- worked for one hour or more in the week the Survey takes place. The work may be for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind, and can be in a job, a business or on a farm. This also includes persons who worked for for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm; or
- were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
- on paid leave,
- on leave without pay for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week,
- stood down without pay because of bad weather or plant breakdown at their place of employment for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week,
- on strike or locked out,
- on workers' compensation and expected to be returning to their job, or
- receiving wages or salary while undertaking full-time study; or
- were employers, own account workers or contributing family workers who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.
Employment rate
Employment rate = (employed / labour force), expressed as a percentage
Full-time workers
Employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week
Labour force
For any group, persons who were employed or unemployed, as defined.
Labour force = (employed persons + unemployed persons)
Labour force status
A classification of the civilian population aged 15 and over into employed, unemployed or not in the labour force, as defined. The definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.
Labour Force Survey
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a government-funded organisation, produces monthly statistics on the Australian labour force by conducting surveys of both Australian private dwellings and of non-private dwellings (hotels, motels, etc.). The survey covers about 0.5% of the population of Australia.
The Labour Force Survey covers the civilian population. The civilian population means persons aged 15 and over, but excluding:
- members of the permanent defence forces;
- overseas residents in Australia; and
- members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.
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The ABS breaks up the civilian population into three categories:
Civilian population = (employed + unemployed + not in the labour force)
Not in the labour force
Civilian persons who were not in the categories employed or unemployed as defined. An example of this would be young people in education or retirees.
Participation rate
For any group, the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 and over in the same group.
Participation rate = (labour force / population), expressed as a percentage.
Part-time workers
Employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week and who did so during the reference week.
Seasonally adjusted series
A time series of estimates with the estimated effects of normal seasonal variation removed.
Seasonally adjusted statistics/series
Seasonal adjustment is a means of removing the estimated effects of normal seasonal variation from a statistical series so that the effects of other influences on the series can be recognised more clearly. Seasonal adjustment does not remove the irregular or non-seasonal influences which may be present in any particular month. This means that month-to-month movements of the seasonally adjusted estimates may not be reliable indicators of trend behaviour. For example, irregular factors unrelated to the trend account for more than half the seasonally adjusted movement in series at the Australia level.
Trend statistics/series
A smoothed seasonally adjusted series of estimates.
Smoothing seasonally adjusted series produces a measure of trend by reducing the impact of the irregular component of the series. These trend series are used to analyse the underlying behaviour of the series over time. While this smoothing technique enables estimates to be produced which include the latest month, it does result in revisions to the most recent months as additional observations become available. Generally, subsequent revisions become smaller, and after three months or two quarters have a negligible impact on the series. There will also be revisions as a result of the annual review of seasonal factors mentioned above.
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Unemployed
Persons aged 15 and over who were not employed during the reference week of the Labour Force Survey, 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:
- were available for work in the reference week, or would have been available except for temporary illness (i.e. lasting for less than four weeks to the end of the reference week), or
- were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and would have started in the reference week if the job had been available then; or
- were waiting to be called back to a full-time or part-time job from which they had been stood down without pay for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week (including the whole of the reference week) for reasons other than bad weather or plant breakdown.
Unemployed looking for first full-time job
Unemployed persons looking for full-time work (as defined above) who had never worked full time for two weeks or more
Unemployed looking for full-time work
Unemployed persons who actively looked for full-time work, or were to resume a full-time job from which they had been stood down.
Unemployed looking for part-time work
Unemployed persons who had actively looked for part-time work only, or were to resume a part-time job from which they had been stood down.
Unemployment rate
For any group, the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force in the same group.
Unemployment rate = (unemployed / labour force), as a percentage.
Unemployment to population ratio
For any group, the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the civilian population in the same group.
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