A Roy Morgan survey released last week attracted little media attention or challenge. Yet it reported that during the last quarter of 2011, Australia recorded the highest unemployment and underemployment figures on record.
According to Morgan’s researchers, 16.8% of the workforce (2.01 million people) were unemployed or underemployed between October and December last year.
The survey reports that 8.6% of the workforce was unemployed during that period. That figure is significantly at odds with the recently released Australian Bureau of Statistics’ national unemployment rate of 5.3%. The Morgan survey also found that underemployment in most states was higher than recent government estimates.
It reported that unemployment ranged from 10.4% in Tasmania to 8% in South Australia. Underemployment around the nation ranged from 9.3% in Queensland to 6% in Western Australia.
When Crikey asked the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) to comment on the report, its acting CEO Tessa Boyd-Caine emailed this response:
“Data on underemployment alongside data on unemployment are an important part of understanding what’s really happening for people who are looking for work.
“While there may be some differences in the way people who are unemployed or underemployed are counted, the official (unemployment) figure of 5.3% masks the lived experience of the many people in Australia who are looking for work and unable to obtain the amount or security of employment that they need to support themselves.
“The evidence of particularly high levels of young people and women facing unemployment and underemployment highlights the importance of policies that would support and sustain education and employment opportunities for young people, not just policies that reduce access to much-needed income support, especially when the basic rate of that income support is so inadequate (roughly $33 per day).”
Underemployment and insecure employment in Australia were matters raised by ACTU president Ged Kearney during her speech last September to the National Press Club. She advised that almost half of all Australian workers are now engaged as casuals or on fixed-term contracts or some other form of non-permanent employment. These workers include government and private sector executives as well as the comparatively low-paid retail, call centre and hospitality industry casuals who can be legally laid off without compensation at five minutes notice.
Paid holidays and public holidays are, increasingly a thing of the past for many Australians. Kearney noted that some primary school teachers do not now get paid during term breaks.
She went on to point to the effects of underemployment and “precarious” employment on Australian workers and their families. The Morgan survey indicates suggests that the situation is deteriorating.
Okay, so who is right, ABS or Morgan? Ms Hubble?
Yeh, this would have been a way more interesting article if you had done
some work looking at the assumptions or the methodolical differences
driving this result. You know, by ringing the ABS. Or calling the
contact number at the bottom of webpage you linked to.
Interestingly, the RM webpage doesn’t explain why the difference occurs
either. Rather, it asserts that the ABS is plain wrong. It also uses the
finding to suggest current union activity is innapropriate given the
employment situation.
Both, they’re just using different definitions of “unemployed”.
Re: CPobke.
(Interestingly, the RM webpage doesn’t explain why the difference occurs
either. Rather, it asserts that the ABS is plain wrong.)
I believe there is a section on each Roy Morgan Unemployment release that deals with the point you raise.
From the Roy Morgan Unemployment & Underemployment Release(s)
(http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4730; http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4731; http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2012/4732)
The Roy Morgan Unemployment estimate is obtained by surveying an Australia-wide cross section by face-to-face interviews. An unemployed person is classified as part of the labour force if they are looking for work, no matter when. The results are not seasonally adjusted and provide an accurate measure of monthly unemployment estimates in Australia.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are obtained by mostly telephone interviews. Households selected for the ABS Survey are interviewed each month for eight months, with one-eighth of the sample being replaced each month. The first interview is conducted face-to-face. Subsequent interviews are then conducted by telephone.
The ABS classifies an unemployed person as part of the labour force only if, when surveyed, they have been actively looking for work in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and if they were available for work in the reference week.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are also seasonally adjusted.
For these reasons the Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are different from the Roy Morgan Unemployment estimate.
In regards to the comment about the current union activity – that forms part of the comment from Gary Morgan regarding his companies latest figures. That is his opinion.
The truth is that it varies from industry to industry as well as from state to state, but there’s no doubt permanent full time jobs are harder to find now. Then again they weren’t exactly thick on the ground during the recessions of the 80’s and 90’s either.