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APS at a glance - All Staff

At 30 June 2003 there were 131,711 staff in the APS. This total comprised:

• 120,062 ongoing staff (up by 7.0% from June 2002); and
• 11,649 non-ongoing staff (up by 2.4% from June 2002).

During 2002–03:

• The number of non-ongoing employees increased by 278;
• 14,973 ongoing employees were engaged;
• 7,070 ongoing employees separated from the APS;
• 35 ongoing employees moved into coverage of the PS Act.

During 2002–03 the total number of APS staff increased by 8,178 or 6.6%.

Size of the Australian Public Service

At June 2003 there were 131,711 staff in the Australian Public Service employed under the PS Act. Of this number, 120,062 were ongoing and 11,649 were non-ongoing. Table 1 shows ongoing and non-ongoing numbers by gender from June 1994 to June 2003.

During the last financial year, no employees moved out of coverage and 35 employees moved into coverage of the PS Act. Coverage changes for the last 10 years are set out in Appendix 4.

The largest net increases in ongoing staff numbers were 2,560 (14.5%) in the Australian Taxation Office, 1,877 (8.1%) in Centrelink and 1,232 (7.2%) in the Department of Defence.

Those agencies whose ongoing staff number decreased were the Australian Bureau of Statistics (56 or 7.1%) and National Library of Australia (36 or 7.5%).

Appendix 5 should be carefully noted when examining tables that compare agency numbers from one year to the next.

Size of Agencies

The following nine agencies accounted for three-quarters of total APS staff (ongoing and non-ongoing) at June 2003. The ranking of the three largest agencies has remained unchanged for the last four years. During 2002–03, Commonwealth Rehabilitation Services was moved from the portfolio of Family and Community Services to Health and Ageing, changing the rankings of both.

Table A: Ten largest agencies (ongoing and non-ongoing), June 2003

Agency	No. of staff at June 2003	% of total APS staff
Centrelink	27141	20.6
Australian Taxation Office	22407	17.0
Defence	19435	14.8
Health and Ageing	5954	4.5
Australian Customs Services	5022	3.8
Family and Community Services	5007	3.8
DIMIA	4551	3.5
Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry	3790	2.9
Australian Bureau of Statistics	3130	2.4
Industry Tourism and Resources	2943	2.2
Total	99380	75.5

Source: Table 2

Ongoing staff

Composition

At June 2003 ongoing employees accounted for 91.2% of the APS, an increase in their representation of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year. Although the number of non-ongoing employees increased during the year, the proportional increase was not as great as that for ongoing employees, so they fell in percentage terms to 8.8%.

The proportion of ongoing employees working part-time is 9.4%, unchanged from last year.

Classification

Ten years ago, the proportion in each of the APS 1–2, APS 3–4 and APS 5–6 classification groups were quite similar at 26.4%, 28.7% and 25.8% respectively. By June 2003, the number of employees at the  APS1–2 level had reduced from 37,461 to 7,859 or 6.5% of all ongoing employees; the APS 3–4 and APS 5–6 now each account for just over a third of the total. This decline in the proportion of APS 1–2 employees has slowed over the last two years after more than twenty years of decline from a high of 47.3% in 1983.

The proportion of EL employees has risen from 14.4% to 20.5% over the decade. The proportion of SES employees has fluctuated between 1.3% and 1.6% and is currently 1.6%.

Over the last 10 years the proportion of trainees and graduate trainees has fluctuated between 0.6% and 1.4%. The proportion has increased 0.5 percentage points from last year and is now 1.1%. In real terms, this was an increase from 941 to 1268. This increase was mainly due to the ATO recruiting their normal amount of graduates after a freeze on recruitment the previous year. It should be noted that the number of graduate trainees does not represent the number of graduates recruited, the overwhelming proportion of which are recruited laterally into the APS at all levels (around 60%) of the 14,973 ongoing employees engaged were graduates.

Figure 1 below shows the changes in the number of employees by classification level as a proportion of total ongoing employees over the last 10 years.

Senior Executive Service

The composition of the SES has remained quite stable over the last 10 years. In 1994, SES Band 1 employees made up 73.0% of the SES, peaked in 2001 with 74.8% and are now 74.4%. Likewise, the proportion in SES Band 2 has changed from 21.6% in 1994 to 20.5% in 2003. SES Band 3 were 5.4% of the SES in 1994 and are 5.1% in 2003.

The big change in the SES over the last 10 years has been the increasing representation of women. In 1994, women comprised 17.1% of the SES and this has risen each year to 30.4% in 2003. The rise has been at all bands with SES 1 rising from 19.1% to 33.3%, SES 2 from 13.0% to 23.4% and SES Band 3 from 5.2% to 17.7% over the decade. Figure 2 below shows the representation of women by band.

Age

In the 10 years to 2003 the median age of APS employees has risen from 37 years to 41 years. With the drop in APS 1–2 numbers over the last 10 years the proportion of employees aged under 25 has fallen from 8.4% to 4.9% of total employees. This, in conjunction with a greater demand for more experienced and higher qualified employees has led to an increase in the number of older employees. Table 7 shows the number of employees by age group over the last 10 years. Comparing 2003 to 1997, a year with a similar total population to 2003, the numbers of employees in all age groups between 20 and 40 years of age has reduced in size, though every age group over 40 has increased. In 1994, 33.4% of employees were between 30 and 40 years of age; in 2003 the biggest 10 year cohort (32.6%) was between 40 and 50 years of age.

Gender

The proportion of women in the APS has increased from 47.8% to 52.8% over the past 10 years, with the increase being at all classification levels above APS 2. Figure 3 below shows the change in the number of women at different levels from the proportion at those levels at June 1994. Each of these numbers is weighted using the June 1994 total APS number as a base. Weighting eliminates the the effects that the change in the overall size of the APS has on representation. The index is given a value of 100 at June 1994, and rises and falls proportionally with the particular group’s change in the weighted number over time. For example at June 1994 the number of women at the SES and equivalents was 303 out of an ongoing population of 141,660. In 1999 the number had grown to 408 but the ongoing number had dropped to 101,796; therefore the weighted number of SES women in 1999 is 567.8, which is 187.4% of the original index.

Location

Two-thirds of staff are located outside of Canberra, with most (37.5%) located in New South Wales and Victoria. The following table shows the distribution of ongoing staff by location.

Table B Ongoing staff by location, June 2003

State/Territory	No. of staff	% of APS staff
Australian Capital Territory	40135	33.4
New South Wales	24326	20.3
Victoria	20738	17.3
Queensland	14532	12.1
South Australia	7405	6.2
Western Australia	7379	6.1
Tasmania	2713	2.3
Northern Territory	1917	1.6
Overseas	911	0.8
Not supplied	6	0.0
Total	120062	100.0

Source: Table 11

Engagements

Over the 2002–03 financial year, there were 14,973 engagements of ongoing employees, up 2777 or 22.8% on the previous financial year. Of total engagements, 23.1% were in Centrelink, 20.5% were in the ATO, and 13.8% were in Defence. Women comprised 59.4% of engagements, which was 5.2% higher than their proportion the previous year. Ten years ago, the APS 1–2 group made up 56.6% of engagements, in 2003, this had dropped to 10.2%. In contrast, the APS 3–4 group increased from 15.5% to 54.8%. Figure 4 below shows the proportion of engagements by classification over the last 10 years.

Separations

Separations dropped from 8560 in 2001–02 to 7070 in 2002–03, a decrease of 17.4%. Resignations made up 4754 of separations, the highest number since 1995 and the highest proportion of total separations (67.2%) in over 10 years. There were 871 retrenchments, the lowest in both real and proportional terms for more than a decade. The proportion of women separating (53.1%) was slightly higher than their representation in ongoing staff (52.8%) but much lower than their representation in engagements (59.4%).

Agency retention rate

Table C shows retention within an agency for ongoing staff, between 30 June 2002 and 30 June 2003. Agency retention counts the number of ongoing staff who were in an agency at 30 June 2002, and how many of those were still in the agency at 30 June 2003. This proportion is expressed as a percentage. A small number of employees who may have changed their Australian Government Staff (AGS) Number during the year would not be counted as still being there. Also, employees who moved to another agency during the year and returned before 30 June 2003 are counted as if they never left. The table includes all agencies with more than 1000 ongoing employees.

Table C Ongoing employees: agency retention for selected agencies, 2001–02 to 2002–03

Department	No. of employees at 30 June 2002	No. of individuals remaining at 30 June 2003	Proportion remaining (%)
Centrelink	23270	21925	94.2
ATO	17678	16915	95.7
Defence	16999	16092	94.7
Health and Ageing	4900	4343	88.6
Customs	4779	4517	94.5
FACS	4266	3796	89.0
DIMIA	4062	3787	93.2
DAFF	3414	3156	92.4
ABS	3063	2754	89.9
DFAT	2703	2569	95.0
DITR	2693	2424	90.0
DVA	2322	2173	93.6
DEWR	1918	1625	84.7
BOM	1383	1328	96.0
DEST	1366	1243	91.0
DE&H	1252	1118	89.3
ATSIC	1080	941	87.1
ASIC	1016	920	90.6

Note: To allow for AAO changes during the year, employees of CRS have been included with Health and Ageing numbers in this table. AAO changes for 2002–03 are set out in Appendix 5.

Source: Table 9