 |
Why are ABS and DSS unemployment figures different?
Dale Daniels
and
Geoff Winter
Social Policy Group
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases monthly figures on
the number of unemployed people in Australia, which are derived from their
Labour Force Survey. The Department of Social Security (DSS) releases
monthly figures for the number of people receiving unemployment payments.
Usually these figures are somewhat different. This may at first glance
seem strange, because both sets of numbers appear to be counting unemployed
people. Closer examination reveals good reasons why these numbers do not
coincide.
Measuring different things
The ABS figures come from a sample interview survey of 0.5% of the total
Australian population, conducted during the middle two weeks of each month.
The questions asked relate to the week before the interview. From these
figures national estimates of the number of unemployed are calculated. The
DSS figures on the other hand are derived monthly from administrative data
on the actual numbers of people signed up to receive payments for the unemployed
(Job Search Allowance, Newstart Allowance or Youth Training Allowance).
The figures derived from these differing sources are clearly measuring different
things.
The main reasons why this is so are these:
- The ABS, following international standards and conventions for measuring
unemployment, classifies a person as unemployed if they were aged 15
years and over, were not employed for at least one hour during the week
before the interview, had actively looked for either full or part time
work and were available for work. People with very short periods of
employment are excluded but those with working spouses or investment
incomes but who did not actually work themselves are not excluded, if
they fulfilled these conditions.
- The DSS count people who satisfy an activity test (by, among other
things, actively seeking paid work and being willing to undertake paid
work) and pass income and asset tests. The DSS figures therefore include
many people who are working part-time or doing casual work, even if
this excludes them from payment temporarily. They also exclude people
whose family incomes are above the income test thresholds, but who may
be unemployed.
- The DSS also pay people who are temporarily ill for up to 13 weeks
or undergoing training courses, but may not be counted by the ABS because
they were unable to look for work, or were unavailable for work.
- The ABS includes people seeking work who are serving waiting periods
before being granted DSS payments, serving deferment periods for breaches
of the activity test or receiving pensions such as Sole Parent Pension.
Reconciling the figures
From time to time claims are made in the media that there are more people
receiving unemployment payments than are classed as unemployed by the ABS.
Fraud or poor administration of the payments system is often cited as the
reason (see, for example, 'Cheats blamed as more get dole than are jobless',
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 April 1996).
However, the DSS and ABS figures for the last six years lend little
support to these claims. The 'All clients' DSS figures and the 'Total'
ABS figures in the table below show the apparently conflicting DSS and
ABS figures over this period. When these figures are adjusted to remove
the effect of the differing definitions of unemployment and the DSS income
test, that conflict disappears. This is done by excluding those not receiving
a payment and those with earned income from the DSS figures, and those
with husbands working (as men predominantly work full-time, those who
do not would be very closely compensated for by the far fewer full-time
working wives of unemployed men) from the ABS figures.
Comparing the resulting figures, i.e. 'Without earned income' DSS figures
and 'Other than husband working' ABS figures, suggests that the DSS figures
are in fact generally lower than the ABS figures. This removes the basis
for any claims that too many people are receiving unemployment payments,
as the diagram on the previous page shows.
Unemployment Estimates Using DSS and ABS Data: 1990 to 1996 ('000)
------------------------------------------------------------------
DSS unemployment payment (a) clients ABS unemployed
------------------------------------ -------------------------
Received payment
------------------------
Other
With Without than
All earned earned Husband husband
Period clients Total income income Total employed employed
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May-90 n.a. 406.1 43.9 362.2 548.6 75.1 473.5
Nov-90 n.a. 468.0 54.8 413.2 625.8 65.6 560.2
May-91 n.a. 650.9 73.5 577.4 805.4 90.2 715.2
Nov-91 730.1 722.3 88.9 633.4 810.9 78.9 732.0
May-92 838.4 831.0 104.0 727.0 912.5 89.4 823.1
Nov-92 849.8 828.9 109.7 719.2 886.1 77.1 809.0
May-93 913.1 889.6 119.2 770.4 923.5 77.6 845.9
Nov-93 900.5 874.6 131.7 742.9 893.7 91.6 802.1
May-94 892.7 848.6 139.2 709.4 849.9 84.5 765.4
Nov-94 810.0 774.1 137.9 636.2 764.1 74.7 689.4
May-95 824.5 794.8 146.9 647.9 753.6 67.4 686.2
Nov-95 805.0 778.3 124.3 654.0 736.8 73.7 663.1
Feb-96 879.4 858.5 121.1 737.4 856.6 86.1 770.5
May-96 838.2 n.y.a. n.y.a. n.y.a. 758.2 79.5 678.7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) Includes unemployment benefit and job search allowance up to June 1991; Job
Search Allowance and Newstart Allowance up to December 1994; and Job Search
Allowance, Newstart Allowance and Youth Training Allowance from January 1995.
n.a. - not available.
n.y.a. - not yet available.
Source: Department of Social Security,
The Labour Force, Australia, various, ABS (Catalogue No. 6203.0).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
 |
