Output 3: Employment-related services and functions

Public Service Gazette

The PS Act 1999 requires that the APS provide the community with a reasonable opportunity to apply for public service positions. Publication of notices in the weekly Public Service Gazette fulfils this requirement. The Gazette notifies all APS employment opportunities (vacancies), movements (transfers), promotions and some learning and development opportunities.

The Commission is responsible for the production of the Gazette. The Gazette is published in hard copy, online on the internet (www.psgazetteonline.gov.au) and in electronic form for download by agencies that do not provide Internet access for their staff. Data is also transmitted to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for display on the Australian Jobsearch Site (www.jobsearch.gov.au).

Work commenced during 2003 on enhancements to the Gazette to improve the process for lodgement of notices by agencies and the searching experience for those looking for jobs. The Commission is examining further possible innovations such as the direct transfer of data from agencies’ own recruitment systems, producing the Gazette continuously online rather than in discrete editions, and allowing people to subscribe to a mailing list or message service to be informed of certain types of jobs as they appear.

After August 2003, the Gazette will no longer be available to the public from Government Information shops due to the Government’s decision to close the shops— however, it will continue to be available to the public through some libraries and directly from the printer and online. The demand for the hard copy version of the Gazette has been declining for several years and this pattern continued during 2002–03.

Since May 2001, when the Commission assumed responsibility for publication and distribution, the subscriber list has dropped from 620 copies to 280 copies per edition. The Commission is considering the possibility and implications of eventually phasing out the hard copy version of the Gazette given the preference for the electronic form and the relatively high cost of small print runs.

Figure 14: Price for production of the APS Gazette