Just to show that I’m not just a pretty-faced resume writer – which I’m not – I’ve included a summary on research I did on non-response in the Labour Force survey. People are not only dropping out of the workforce, they’re not filling in the ‘unemployment survey’.
The ABS state that between five and seven per cent of people fail to complete the LFS survey. This is an extraordinarily low non-response rate compared to other nations using the same methodology.
In the UK, the LFS non-response rate rose to 20 per cent in the early 1990s and is now around 40 per cent. Those who dropped out were mainly in the 20-29 age group and unemployed.
In the USA, the non-response rate is around 12-15 per cent. Non-response in some of its largest national surveys is climbing because poorer Americans have lost faith in their political system.
The Australian Federal Government is not held in high regard by the unemployed and under employed. The longer one is unemployed, the greater the antipathy and ennui.
When one is battling poverty, the requirement to complete and lodge eight monthly Labour Force Surveys, whether online or by telephone, ranks low on their hierarchy of needs, so they don’t complete the survey.
They are excluded from the count and ‘adjusted’ later in the weighting process. Weighting is a mathematical technique that makes the results reflect variables such as non-responders.
Data from previous local population surveys is used to ‘fill in’ the missing information and is massaged to show validity rather than accuracy. Statistical validity is not the same as representative truth.
Even the non-responder votes in the House or Representatives has been rising for the past 30 years.
In 1993, 96 per cent of the eligible Australian population voted in the Lower House. In the last election, it had fallen to 89 per cent. Why? Disenchantment and apathy.