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COMPOSITION

At June 2004 ongoing employees accounted for 92.8% of the APS, a 1.5 percentage point increase in their representation from the previous year. While ongoing staff numbers increased somewhat, the proportional increase was mainly due to the large decrease in the non-ongoing number.

The proportion of ongoing employees working part-time increased from 9.4% last year to 10.2% at June 2004. Non-ongoing employees were even more likely to work part-time (25.0% at June 2004).

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 23.0%, 31.0% and 26.9% respectively. By June 2004, the number of employees at the APS 1-2 level had reduced from 29,933 to 7,781 or just 6.4% of all ongoing employees. Over the same period, the proportion of staff at the APS 3-4 and APS 5-6 levels rose to each account for over a third of all ongoing staff.

This year saw an increase in the number of ongoing employees at APS 1-2 level for the first time in over twenty years, though this was offset by a substantially greater reduction amongst non-ongoing staff.

The proportion of Executive Level (EL) employees has risen from 15.4% to 21.3% over the decade. The proportion of Senior Executive Service (SES) employees has fluctuated between 1.3% and 1.6% and is currently 1.5%.

At June 2004, the proportion of trainees and graduate trainees in the APS was 0.6%, the lowest for the past ten years. It should be noted that the number of graduate trainees does not represent the number of graduates recruited-the overwhelming proportion of these are recruited to all levels from outside the APS. During 2003-04, around 60% of the 9,097 ongoing employees engaged had tertiary qualifications.

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

Figure 1: Ongoing employees by classification group, June 1995 to June 2004

Source: Table 5, page 20

SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE

The composition of the SES has generally remained stable over the last 10 years. At June 2004, SES Band 1 employees comprised about three quarters of the SES (74.4%), SES Band 2, 20.5% and SES Band 3, 5.1%.

The major change in the SES over the last 10 years has been the steady increase in the representation of women, which has risen each year, from 18.4% in June 1995 to 31.6% in June 2004. This trend is also evident in each of the SES bands, although women are still concentrated at lower levels, with 80.4% of SES women at Band 1, compared with 71.6% of SES men.

Figure 2: Ongoing employees, proportion of women by SES band, June 1995 to June 2004

Source: Table 5, page 20

AGE

The median age of ongoing APS employees has been steady at 41 years for the past three years. The number of employees in the under 25 age group fell slightly during 2003-04, after increasing during the previous year. Over the ten years to June 2004 this group's representation fell from 7.5% to 4.3%.

The strongest growth in recent years has been in the representation of older age groups. Employees in the 45-54 age group represented 23.4% of all employees a decade ago, and now represent 30.0%. Similarly, the 55 and over age group has increased from 5.4% to 9.3% over the decade.

SEX

Over the past 10 years women's representation in the APS has increased from 47.2% to 53.1%. In general, women are still employed at lower classification levels than men, but the gap is decreasing. Ten years ago, 66.4% of women were in the APS1-4 group, but this had decreased to 50.9% at June 2004. For men, 42.9% were in the APS1-4 group ten years ago, compared with 34.5% at June 2004. Changes in women's representation by classification over the past 10 years are shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Ongoing employees, proportion of women in selected classification groups, June 1995 to June 2004

Source: Table 5, page 20

LOCATION

Two-thirds of APS staff are located outside Canberra. There was a slight increase in the proportion of ACT-based ongoing staff (from 33.4% to 34.0%) in the year to June 2004.

The following table shows the distribution of ongoing staff by location.

Table B: Ongoing staff by location, June 2004

Source: Table 11, page 28

ENGAGEMENTS

Over the 2003-04 financial year, there were 9,097 engagements of ongoing employees, a significant decrease from 15,130 in the previous financial year. Despite decreases in engagements of 64.6% in Centrelink, 66.2% in the Australian Taxation Office and 48.4% in the Department of Defence, these three agencies still accounted for over a third of all ongoing engagements in 2003-04.

Men comprised 42.3% of ongoing engagements, up from 40.6% the previous year.

Ten years ago, the APS 1-2 group made up 41.4% of engagements; in 2003-04, this had dropped to 10.7%, after a steady decline. In contrast, the APS 3-4 group increased from 17.2% to 46.6% over the same period. This classification group now accounts for most 'baselevel' recruitment. Figure 4 below shows the proportion of engagements by classification over the last 10 years.

Figure 4: Ongoing engagements: proportion in selected classification groups, 1994-95 to 2003-04

Source: Table 23, page 45

SEPARATIONS

There were 7,187 separations in 2003-04, almost unchanged from the number of separations in 2002-03 (7,181). Resignations were the most common form of separation in both years. As a proportion of all separations, resignations have increased from 44.8% in 1994-95 to 69.8% in 2003-04. There has, however, been considerable variation over the decade. This is shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Ongoing employees: selected separations as a proportion of total separations, 1994-95 to 2003-04

Source: Table 34, page 58

The overall separation rate is calculated as the total number of separations during the financial year divided by the average of the number of employees at 30 June 2003 and 30 June 2004. During 2003-04 the separation rate was 5.9%. This value cannot be compared with a similar measure at agency level as the former does not take into account movements of employees between agencies. The agency retention rate should be used at agency level when assessing agency 'turnover'.

AGENCY RETENTION RATE

Table C shows the retention of ongoing staff between 30 June 2003 and 30 June 2004 within agencies that had more than 1,000 ongoing employees. The agency retention rate is based on the number of ongoing staff who were still in an agency at 30 June 2004, compared to how many of those individuals had been in that agency at 30 June 2003, 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 in an agency. Also, employees who moved to another agency during the year and returned before 30 June 2004 are counted as if they never left.

Table C: Ongoing employees: agency retention for selected agencies, June 2003 to June 2004

Note: To allow for changes in the Administrative Arrangement Orders (AAO) during the year, employees of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS) have been included with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) numbers and employees of the National Science and Technology Centre (NSTC) have been included with the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in this table. AAO changes for 2003-04 are set out in Appendix 5.

Source: Table 9, page 26