Home page
> Archive > The demographic and classification profile of the APS: Trends and prospects
> Employment policy and advice
‹ Previous page
Last updated: 9 May 1996
The demographic and classification profile of the APS: Trends and prospects
Please note: This document is for reference purposes only and is no longer considered by the APS Commission to be current. It may contain good practice advice and/or advice on the transitional arrangements between the 1922 and 1999 Public Service Acts.
In 1994 and 1995 the former Statistical Research and Development Unit of the Public Service Commission (now part of the Human Resource Planning Team of the PSMPC) analysed broad staffing patterns in the Australian Public Service, especially by age, gender and classification, and explored possible future trends. There were also discussions with interested agencies both on the data and on appropriate policy responses to changes that may occur in staffing patterns.
Some of this work was published in State of the Service Paper No. 11 with the above title. This is available through the Australian Government Publishing Service or from the Commission. It is hoped that the background information will prove useful for those concerned with people management in the APS.
Inquiries may be directed to:
Australian Public Service Commission
16 Furzer Street
PHILLIP ACT 2606.
The Executive Summary follows:
Executive Summary
The APS in context
The staff of the Australian Public Service (APS) now comprises only 40% of overall Commonwealth employment, and 9.0% of total public sector employment in Australia. The permanent paid officers of the APS, with which this paper is primarily concerned, make up just 7.8% of total public sector employment. This is relevant when discussing questions about the public sector in general. With many more people now employed in statutory authorities and government business enterprises, APS staffing patterns are no longer necessarily typical of Commonwealth employment as a whole.
Age and gender distribution
This paper analyses changes in overall staffing patterns for the permanent staff of the APS, especially by age, gender and classification. The age distribution has changed significantly in just ten years from 1984 to 1994, with rapid ageing of the Service making it more middle aged, but the populations of male and female officers in the APS have quite different distributions.
The gender imbalance is decreasing, but is unlikely to disappear altogether for some years. Women are gradually moving up the structure of the Service and now comprise 58% of Administrative Service Officers (ASOs), but are still concentrated at the lower levels. The classification at which women become a minority is at the ASO 5 level, whereas in 1988 it was just above ASO 3. The age distribution for women is concentrated in the earlier years, while that for men is concentrated in the later years of working life.
There has been a steady increase in the number and proportion of permanent staff in the 40-49 year age group, with the absolute number of women in this group more than trebling over ten years. For women the numbers in the 50-59 group have also increased markedly. On the other hand, for older men the pattern has been uneven.
Young people in the APS
The proportion of young people in the APS has dropped dramatically. The proportion of young women in the APS has always been higher than those for young men, but has also dropped. The proportion of male and female officers combined under the age of 25 in the Service has dropped from 20.8% in June 1984 to 7.9% in June 1994. The age distribution of the APS is increasingly atypical of that of the civilian work force as a whole, with fewer young people, fewer over 55, and none over the age of 65.
Thus the number of people under 25 years has fallen markedly, as has the number of those aged 60 or more, while those in their forties have increased: the Service has largely lost both ends of the age distribution. There are very few appointments of young people, although both the absolute number and the proportion of total appointments going to young people increased in 1993-94.
Structural change and likely developments in the composition of the APS
Recruitment patterns have changed, with more older people and fewer people under 25 years of age now being appointed. Administrative Service Officers Class 1 now represent only 17.2% of the total ASO and senior officer group, and ASO 2 staff 13.6%. Increasing numbers of staff are now being appointed to the APS at the ASO 3 and higher levels. There has been a substantial and continuing growth in the number of Senior Officers Grade C, and a continuing decline in ASO 1 and ASO 2 numbers.
It seems likely that few young people will continue to be recruited, particularly those under twenty, and that there will be a gradual move towards gender balance.
SES and Senior Officer Questions
In its August 1994 working paper Senior Officer Congestion., the Department of Finance (DoF) has suggested that 'the rapid rate of promotion to the Senior Officer level followed by depressed promotion prospects for Senior Officers has resulted in congestion at the Senior Officer level', where congestion is defined as 'a slower career progression for Senior Officers on the whole, that is, a reduction in promotion prospects'. It says that promotion rates for Senior Officers are projected to remain low until early next century, when they should 'rise in reflection of the growing number of age retirements'.
Factors affecting the promotion prospects of Senior Officers
The DoF methodology included projected age distributions for senior officers and Senior Executive Service (SES) officers to the year 2013. These projections rest upon assumptions which may not eventuate, including zero growth in each of the senior officer and SES groups, and no change to the age distribution of each group's intake.
Age distributions for SES, Senior Officers and other Classifications
The age distributions for most classifications are highly skewed and are attenuated at the upper end of the age range. There are remarkably few people in their 50s and 60s in either the senior officer or the SES classifications. For both Senior Officer Grade C and Senior Officer Grade B there are fewer in the classification in the entire group over the age of 50 than in the 45-49 years group. There are nearly as many SES Band 1 officers aged 40-44 as in the entire group over the age of 50. Not only SES officers but also Secretaries are generally quite young.
Appointments and Separations
Appointments represent a relatively minor, but growing, proportion of the intake of senior staff. In the 11 years from 1983-84 to 1993-94 the proportion of the intake of senior staff by appointment increased from 4% to 16% for Senior Officer Grade C (SOG C), from 6% to 13% for SOG B, and from 2% to 12% for SES Band 1 officers. The median age of those appointed is in the late thirties for senior officers, and 40 for SES Band 1 officers. Appointments of people aged 45 and over in 1993-94 represented only 11.4% of all appointments.
During the recent recession, resignations have been low and static, retirements have also been low, and retrenchments remained high and account for 35% of all separations.
The demographics of classification groups
The SES comprises only 1.2% of permanent staff and senior officers 9.0% (or 12.7% if senior officer equivalents are included), whereas ASOs make up 63.9% of the Service. If we are concerned to retain and motivate staff in a climate of restrictive demographics, we must not forget the great bulk of those in the APS. If there are problems of congestion, then congestion is likely to affect ASOs also. Any bottlenecks at the SES level can be expected to generate bottlenecks not only at the senior officer level but also at the ASO level.
The explanation of the age distributions of SES officers and of senior officers doubtless lies in a combination of factors, including the post-war growth of the APS and further growth in the 1970s, its subsequent contraction, and the ageing of those who joined when the Service was growing rapidly, combined with the differential effects of voluntary retrenchments on the older and more senior officers of the Service, together with a growing choice of early retirement and in some cases resignation.
The projected age distributions for senior officers and SES officers to the year 2013 on which the DoF analysis is based rely on a projection methodology which assumes zero growth in each of the SOG C, SOG A/B and SES groups, constant age-specific outflow rates for each group at the average rates for 1989-93, and no change to the age distribution of each group's intake.
It is clear that any projections or forecasts of future staffing patterns must depend crucially on the assumptions made. There are various reasons why these assumptions may not be realised. Moreover this view of the future implies a projected age distribution in the next ten or twenty years different from that now, with a massive increase of people at senior levels in their fifties.
Policy implications
The demographic and statistical matters discussed here could have various policy implications. These include the need for greater emphasis on promoting active career management; mechanisms to facilitate staff mobility; redeployment on a Service-wide basis through the APS Labour Market Adjustment Branch of the PSC; and more flexible classification structures.
