In 2015, 5000 citizens were randomly selected from the electoral roll. Each of them were posted an explanatory letter, followed by a questionnaire booklet and reply paid envelope. Up to three reminder mailings were sent for participants who did not return a booklet. 1211 of them returned a completed questionnaire.

What questions were asked?

Questions included:​

• ​Would you enjoy having a paid job even if you didn’t need the money?
• ​How important is job security? High income? Opportunities for advancement? An interesting job? Independence? Helping other people? Useful to society? Being able to decide days/times of work?
• ​Have you given up job opportunities for the benefit of your family life?
• ​Have you been discriminated against, harrased or bullied at work?
• ​Do workers need strong trade unions?
• ​How often do you work at home or work on weekends?
• ​What control do you have over your working hours?
• ​How difficult would it be to take time off during normal working hours?
• If unemployed, what would you be willing to do to get a job?​​

Selected findings

Over 70% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they would enjoy having a job even if they didn’t need the money. 25% of respondents agree or strongly agree that a job is just a way of earning money.

Almost 30% of respondents report that it would be somewhat difficult or very difficult to take an hour or two off work to attend to personal or family matters.

Access to further information and results from AuSSA 2015

A summary (codebook) of the results from the AuSSA 2015 is available to view in your web browser

AuSSA data is lodged in the public domain by its deposit in the Australian Data Archive (ADA) – AuSSA 2015 archive. The ADA provides online analysis tools for those with basic data analysis skills who wish to use AuSSA in their own research. In addition, the data file can be downloaded free of charge for your own further analysis.​

For more information:

Tel. 1800 122 251 (free call)
Email: surveys@acspri.org.au