About Jobs and Skills Atlas

Atlas uses a range of data sources which includes:

Labour Market

Australia

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force, Australia release (Table 12 and Table 13).
• ABS Labour Force, detailed release (Table 04) figures are in seasonally adjusted terms, except for the state and territory youth unemployment rate.
• State and territory youth unemployment rate is a 12-month average of original data and working-age (15-64), using employment to population ratio (seasonally-adjusted data).

States and Territories

• ABS Labour Force, Australia release (Table 12, Table 12a and Table 16).
• ABS Labour Force, detailed release (Table 5).
• Figures are in seasonally adjusted terms, except for the state and territory youth unemployment rate.
• State and territory youth unemployment rate is a 12-month average of original data and working-age (15-64), using employment to population ratio (3-month averages of original data).

Regional (ABS SA4) level

• ABS Labour Force, Australia, Detailed release - Tables RM1 (monthly data) and RQ1 (quarterly data).
• Figures are 6-month averages of original estimates except for youth unemployment rate and age-sex breakdowns.
• Youth unemployment rate and age-sex breakdowns are 12-month averages of original data and working-age (15-64), using employment to population ratio (6-month averages of original data).
• In May 2024, the ABS introduced its first set of regular modelled SA4 labour force estimates, to be released on a monthly basis going forward. The ABS recommends using the modelled estimates over the direct survey estimates, where available, for timely regional labour market analysis. The Jobs and Skills Atlas will be updated to include the new modelled SA4 estimates in the coming months. Note that at this stage modelled estimates disaggregated by sex, age or other characteristics are not available and accordingly, the Atlas will continue to use direct survey SA4 estimates for age and sex disaggregation.

Industries

• ABS, Labour Force Survey (detailed) using quarterly averages of original estimates from table RQ1 (quarterly data).

Occupations

Jobs and Skills Australia

• Employment (nowcast) data is from the Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation based on the 15th of each month.
• Job vacancies data is from the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) and is a 6-month moving average.

Jobs and Skills Atlas uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) standardised geographical Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4s) to classify regions as this is compatible with most of the data sets that are used in the tool.

SA4s are geographical areas with interlocking boundaries that provide a standardised regional breakdown of Australia. SA4s generally have populations of between 100,000 and 500,000 people.

There are 88 SA4 regions for which data is currently presented in Atlas, noting that Labour Force Survey data for Western Australia Outback (North) and Western Australia - Outback (South) relate to the combined area/populations of both regions.

Atlas presents large amounts of data in an easy, accessible and understandable way.

• the left hand navigation pane enables users to select which view they would like to browse the data by; Region, Occupation or Industry
• from here, the user can flick through the tab options in the left column before viewing more specific and granular detail in the right hand column.
• also, in the left hand navigation pane, an interactive map is also available to view regional data.
• users can also compare two selected regions, states or compare to the national level.
• data has been grouped through specific categories which can be chosen using the left-hand navigation column (bottom navigation if on a mobile device).

Jobs and Skills Atlas enables users to explore key labour market indicators at the regional (SA4), state/territory and the national level as well as by occupation and industry views.

Insights include:

• key data for specific regional areas, states and at the national level, including unemployment rate, number of employed people, participation rate, population, youth unemployment rate, employment to population ratio and educational attainment.
• Select a particular indicator to view the 5-year trend and compare it to the national trend (Australia)
• number or percentage of people employed across 19 industries by region and see how this has changed over time. 
• wholistic understanding of specific occupations including; cohort make up, employment statistics, employment projections and future demands.
• wholistic understanding of specific industries including; sub industries, projections, vacancies, active businesses within the industry, etc.
• employment numbers are rounded to the nearest 100, so approximating percentage share of population
• common occupations at regional, state and national levels, as classified by the 4-digit (occupation unit-group level) of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). 
• employment, recent job vacancies job vacancy rate and information about demand for occupations 
• Comparisons between regions or regions with states / national data.

The Atlas tool aggregates data from multiple sources, released at different times across a given month. It is updated by the last Friday of every month when all data has become available for that month. 

Please note that data sources have different release frequencies.