YouthView

YouthView is a tool that offers important data insights on youth transitions in Australia. It can be used by policymakers, schools, and communities to better understand the challenges and dynamics faced by young people. The tool provides interactive data visualisations that can be filtered at different levels, such as local, state, and national, and covers indicators like poverty, engagement, and opportunities.

Methodology

YouthView is a project that aims to measure youth disadvantage and employment at a community and regional level in Australia. To obtain accurate data, the project utilizes the 100% Australian Census of Population and Housing for 2016 and 2021, which provides information on various factors such as education, employment, income, and housing. However, the Census data only offer a snapshot in time and do not show the persistence or future outcomes of youth disengagement from education or the labor force. To address this limitation, the project links the Census data with other sources, including tax records, higher education participation data, and vocational education and training data. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of youth outcomes and the factors that may contribute to reducing youth disengagement.

By linking the census information to tax record data, we capture earnings and occupations of the youth under study before and after the census years. By linking census information to higher education and training data, we may see, for example, the extent to which we observe reengagement with the education system for youth who have dropped out of high school. These sources of information are of particular interest for understanding the dynamics of the status of being Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), and how the persistence of this status varies over time and the association of NEET with measures that could lead to a reduction of NEET.

While linking information at the individual level can be useful to compute relevant measures, we should not assume that measures from different data sources can be linked at an individual level. Moreover, in some cases, the intention is not to link at the individual level but to create measures at a relevant geographic level to better understand the opportunities and constraints a youth may face as she progresses through high school and considers her options beyond high school.

YouthView incorporates data on youth at an individual level and then combines the information known for the youth at a geographic level known as Statistical Area 2 (SA2). SA2s capture approximately 2,450 areas across Australia. Each area ranges in population between 3,000 and 25,000 persons. The average SA2 contains 10,000 persons. Typically, smaller SA2s represent rural and regional locations and larger SA2 capture areas in major cities. The resulting SA2-level measures can then be linked to other regional-level data sources.

To capture measures that relate to employment opportunities and the types of occupations captured and around where a youth resides, we create measures for the geographic level known as Statistical Area 4 (SA4). There are approximately 108 SA4s in Australia. An SA4 will capture a population that ranges between 100,000 and 500,000 persons; the smaller SA4s are typically found in remote and rural areas whereas the large SA4s are found in the major cities. SA4 geographies are designed to capture both where people live and where people work.

To capture information on labour markets, YouthView uses data developed by the National Skill Commission and ABS. The core data sources from the National Skill Commission are: the Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation (NERO), which provides detailed information on employment; and the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI), which provides data on vacancies by occupation. To complement these data, the ABS counts of businesses provides measures of business entries and exits, while the Labour Force Survey (LFS) surveys a sample of Australian every month to enquire about their labour market activities.

Key Definitions/Notes

Average vacancies observed are the annual estimates are computed from the average monthly vacancies within a year. (Source: IVI data)
Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA) are geographical areas built from Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4) and are designed to represent the functional extent of each of the eight State and Territory capital cities.
Not in employment, education or Training (NEET) is defined as being employed and/or studying or training as of Census day. (Source: Census data)
Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) represent Urban Centres, or groups of Urban Centres, that contain population of 10,000 persons or more. They are based on Urban Centres and Localities (UCLs) and built from Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2).
Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2) are medium-sized general purpose areas built up from whole Statistical Areas Level 1. Their purpose is to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically.
Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3) are geographical areas built from whole Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2). They have been designed for the output of regional data, including 2016 Census data. SA3s create a standard framework for the analysis of ABS data at the regional level through clustering groups of SA2s that have similar regional characteristics. Whole SA3s aggregate to form Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4).
Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4) are geographical areas built from whole Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3s). The SA4 regions are the largest sub-State regions in the Main Structure of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), and have been designed for the output of a variety of regional data, including data from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. They are specifically designed for the output of ABS Labour Force Survey data and therefore have population limits imposed by the Labour Force Survey sample. These areas represent labour markets or groups of labour markets within each State and Territory.
Total persons employed in a year is computed from the average of the monthly employment estimates within a year. (Source: NERO data)
Youth NEET rate is the proportion of young persons aged 15 to 24, not being employed and/or studying or training as of Census day.
Youth poverty rate is the proportion of households with young person(s) experiencing poverty. A household is defined as experiencing poverty if its total family income is lower than 60% of the median equivalized income in Australia.
Youth unemployment rate is the number of unemployed individuals in the target age group divided by the number of individuals in the labour force in the target age group. (Source: LFS data)