RDP 1999-02: Reservation Wages and the Duration of Unemployment Appendix A: Data

The following variables take the value 1 when the characteristic is present and 0 otherwise:

• personal characteristics: married, male;
• previous work experience: no previous job, manufacturing, manager, advanced clerical, trade, (low skilled), manager-manufacturing;
• education: degree/diploma, vocational qualifications, high school, (less than high school);
• section of state: capital city, rural area, (other urban); and
• left previous job due to: temporary or holiday job, ill health, child care, unsatisfactory work/pay/hours, (lost job or worked for bankrupt firm).

Log unemployment duration

The log of the number of days of job search, in which there have been no concurrent working episodes. For jobs prior to September 1994, the end date of the last full-time job is considered prior to the last part-time job.

Log of hourly reservation wages

The log of reservation wages divided by desired hours. As data for desired hours and reservation wages are reported in ranges we take the midpoints of each range. For the range 49 hours and over we arbitrarily choose 49 hours. For the highest reservation wage we use $1179.50.

Family size

Family size as recorded at the Wave 2 interview. As family size is only recorded for families larger than 1, we replace missing value with a value of 1.

Log of current income of family unit

Records the dollar value of the midpoint of the decile of the family's current weekly income.

Age

Midpoint of the range for age recorded by SEUP.

English first language

Equals 1 if their first spoken language was English and they usually speak English in the home. Equals 0 otherwise.

English language proficiency

English language proficiency as recorded at the Wave 1 interview. This is a self-evaluated measure. Equals 0 if first language is English, equals 1 if English is not the first language but is spoken very well, etc through to 5 if the respondent does not speak English.

Unemployment benefit eligibility

Equals 1 if the respondent is considered eligible for unemployment benefits. If the respondent was unemployed in both the person-level data and in our sample which is based on the episodal data, they are said to be eligible for unemployment benefits if their main source of weekly income in the week prior to the interview was social security. This accounts for around 80 per cent of the people who end up being classified as unemployment benefit recipients. If they were unemployed at the end of Wave 2 but not at the interview, they are classified as eligible for unemployment benefits if their main source of income in the last financial year was social security. Therefore, those who are not classified as eligible will include some individuals who were eligible, but whose unemployment spell at the end of Wave 2 was not long enough to report unemployment benefits were their main source of income over the year and who left unemployment before the interview date.

Housing costs

Dollar value of the midpoint of the decile in which housing costs of the respondent fall. Housing costs include principal repayments on loans as well as interest costs and rent for renters.

Socioeconomic disadvantage of collection district

The ABS's index of socioeconomic disadvantage for collection districts measures the extent to which the local area displays characteristics such as a high proportion of low income families, low average education levels, employed labourers and high unemployment rates.^[17] A higher score in the underlying index of socioeconomic disadvantage suggests that the area is less disadvantaged. The SEUP provides information about the decile of each individual's local area ranked by the index of socioeconomic disadvantage.

Hours in previous job

We first take the midpoint of the range of hours that the respondent previously worked. If the respondent didn't have a job post September 1994, we take the response to the person-level question concerning usual hours in last full-time job. If there is no previous full-time job we take the last part-time job. If there was no previous job we replace missing values with 0.

Wage in last full-time job

We first take the midpoint of the range of wages that the respondent previously worked for. If the respondent didn't have a job post September 1994, we take the response to the person-level question concerning usual weekly income in last full-time job. If there is no previous full-time job we take the last part-time job. If there was no previous job we replace missing values with 0.

Log hourly pay

Is the log of the ratio of the wage in last job to hours in last job. Equals 0 if there is no last job recorded.

Footnote

The local area used by the ABS for this index is the Collection District (CD) which is a small area defined by the ABS for statistical collection purposes. [17]