The Two Components Behind the Employment & GDP Reading
Employment & GDP (21230) is built in two steps. Three published statistics are each converted to a Z-score against their own fifteen-year history, combined into two component nodes, and the two components are averaged into the node’s certified reading. This page sets out each step for the June quarter 2026.
The three inputs
1. Employed share of the labour force. One hundred minus the unemployment rate, from the ABS Labour Force Survey, seasonally adjusted. The quarterly reading is the final month of the quarter. June 2026: 95.57 per cent (unemployment 4.43 per cent). Baseline mean 94.87 per cent, standard deviation 0.91: Z-score +0.7641σ.
2. Job vacancy rate. ABS job vacancies as a percentage of filled jobs, both seasonally adjusted. June quarter 2026: 2.02 per cent. Baseline mean 1.77 per cent, standard deviation 0.58: Z-score +0.4325σ.
3. GDP per capita, growth over the year. The four-quarter change in real GDP per person, chain volume measures, seasonally adjusted, from the ABS National Accounts. June quarter 2026: +0.68 per cent. Baseline mean 0.89 per cent, standard deviation 2.07: Z-score −0.1030σ.
From a statistic to a Z-score
The three inputs are on different scales, so each is expressed as a Z-score: its distance from its own baseline average, in standard deviations, written σ. Every baseline runs from March 2011 to December 2025, 60 quarters.
X is the input’s value in quarter t; μ and σ are its baseline mean and standard deviation.
From inputs to components to the node
Labour Market Tightness (21231) is the equal-weighted average of the first two Z-scores. Growth per Person (21235) is the third. Employment & GDP (21230) is the equal-weighted average of the two components, so labour and output each carry half the reading.
Certified for the June quarter 2026: +0.2476σ, position 84.4 of 123.
What the configuration is saying
Both labour inputs sit above their baseline averages, so labour is scarcer than usual. Growth per person sits just below its average. The node reading is positive because the labour component is further from its average than the growth component is. Every input is read so that higher means stronger, so no sign has to be reversed before reading the result.
Terms worth keeping
Baseline: the fixed window of history each input is measured against, March 2011 to December 2025.
Z-score (σ): the distance of a reading from its baseline average, in standard deviations.
Component: a node that feeds another node’s reading. Employment & GDP (21230) has two.
Position: where a reading ranks among the quarters in which every input is available: 0 is the lowest, 100 the highest. 84.4 of 123 means the June quarter 2026 reading is higher than 84.4 per cent of the other 122 ranked quarters.
Certified: a reading formally recorded as the node’s official figure for a quarter.
Growth over the year: the percentage change from the same quarter a year earlier. It removes the seasonal pattern and the long-run growth of the economy’s size.
