Engagements and separations

There were 11,424 engagements and 10,482 separations of ongoing employees during 2004–05. Engagements rose by 22.6% over the previous year, and separations rose by 44.2% over the same period. Figure 2.15 shows ongoing engagements and separations as a proportion of all ongoing employees for the past 10 years.

Figure 2.15: Ongoing engagements and separations as a proportion of ongoing employees, 1995–96 to 2004–05

Source: APSED

Figure 2.16 compares the age profile of engagements and separations during 2004–05 with the age profile of the APS overall. As expected, the age profile for engagements is much younger than for the APS overall. For separations, there are two peaks—in the 25–34 and 50–54 age groups. During 2004–05, 20.9% of those who left were aged under 30 years. For further analysis of ageing trends, see Chapter 9.

Figure 2.16: Age profile of ongoing engagements and separations, 2004–05

Source: APSED

Engagements

The strong growth in ongoing engagements during 2004–05 continued the fluctuating pattern of much of the past decade. The growth was from an unusually low number in 2003–04, and total engagements remained below the level of the previous few years.

Figure 2.17 shows the proportion of engagements of ongoing employees by classification for the past 10 years. The long-term fall in engagements at the APS 1–2 levels has slowed, and indeed reversed very slightly. This group’s representation appears to have stabilised at around 10% of total engagements.

Most ‘base-level’ ongoing recruitment is now at the APS 3–4 levels or through graduate and other trainee classifications. Engagements at APS 3–4 levels fell proportionally this year; however, engagements at the trainee classifications (including both graduate and other trainees) experienced the strongest growth of any classification level with an increase of 47.6% on the previous year. Trainee classifications rose as a proportion of total engagements from 8.9% in 2003–04 to 10.7% in 2004–05—the only classification group to increase by more than one percentage point.

Despite their proportional decline, the APS 3–4 levels still accounted for almost half of all ongoing engagements during the year, more than twice the number of any other classification level.

Although data on educational qualifications is incomplete, it does show that the trend for new recruits to also be graduates has increased substantially, from around 25% twenty years ago to around 67% in 2004–05.¹⁰

Women accounted for 58.0% of ongoing engagements during 2004–05, almost unchanged from the previous year (57.9% in 2003–04).

In the middle management group, ongoing engagements at the APS 5–6 levels experienced relatively less growth (up by only 10.2% compared with the APS average of 22.6%). In contrast, the number of ongoing engagements at EL classifications grew by 31.3%.

Engagements to the SES grew by the smallest amount, with an increase of 6.4% over the previous year, with most growth in the SES being through promotion within and between agencies.

Figure 2.17: Ongoing engagements by classification, 1995–96 to 2004–05

Source: APSED

Mobility between the APS and the wider labour market can be gauged by the proportion of employment opportunities filled by engagements (i.e. from outside the APS) as a percentage of opportunities filled by engagements and promotions. Over the past decade there has been an increase in the proportion of opportunities filled by engagements, from 33.7% in 1995–96 to 47.6% in 2004–05. There has, however, been some variation between classification levels in this trend towards engagement rather than promotion. As noted above, this year there has been an increase in the total number of employees in the APS 6 and EL classifications, and a decline at lower levels. The trend towards filling employment opportunities by engagement rather than promotion is no longer evident at these levels—indeed, the proportion of employment opportunities at the APS 6 and EL classifications filled by engagement has fallen over the past three years. During 2004–05, the number of promotions to the APS 6 and EL 1 classifications rose by 1358. In contrast, the number of engagements at these levels increased by only 285.

Ongoing engagements rose in all age groups this year. Figure 2.18 shows changes in the age profile of engagements to the APS over the past 10 years. After several years of decline, engagements in the under 25 years age group seem to have stabilised at just over 20% of all engagements. During 2004–05, the age groups that fell in proportional terms were the under 25 and 45–54 age groups. The latter group had experienced above average growth during 2003–04. By far, the greatest growth in engagements this year was in the 55 years and over age group, which grew by more than a third. This continues a long-term trend which has strengthened since the removal of compulsory age retirement in 1999.

Figure 2.18: Ongoing engagements by age group, 1995–96 to 2004–05

Source: APSED

During 2004–05, ongoing engagements were concentrated in the three largest agencies: ATO (1913), Centrelink (1458) and Defence (1130). The growth in engagements during the year was due mainly to large increases in ATO (867 or an 82.9% increase on the previous year) and Customs (up by 376 or 432.2%). Other agencies which increased numbers of engagements were Centrelink (229), CSA (197) and DIMIA (167).

Prior service

Of the 11,424 ongoing engagements during 2004–05, 1584 had previously worked in the APS as ongoing employees. Of these, over one-quarter (428) were re-engaged by the same agency in which they had previously worked. The median length of service prior to re-engagement as ongoing employees was 7.6 years.

A total of 4052 people who were engaged as ongoing employees during 2004–05 had previously worked as non-ongoing employees in the APS. Of these, 3504 were engaged as ongoing employees by the same agency in which they were previously non-ongoing. The median length of service as a non-ongoing employee prior to their ongoing engagement was 1.0 years.

These two totals include 684 people who had both non-ongoing and ongoing previous service.

A total of 6472 of the ongoing engagements during 2004–05 had no prior experience in the APS.¹¹ Put another way, close to half of those people engaged as ongoing employees during 2004–05 (43.3%) had previously worked in the APS.

Separations

There were 10,482 separations of ongoing employees during 2004–05, an increase of 44.2% on the 7270 the previous year. This was the largest number of separations since 1999–00. There were increases in most separation types, except for termination of employment. Retrenchments more than doubled, from 604 to 1715, after falling the previous year. Age retirements¹² fell proportionally after rising for the past two years. Figure 2.19 shows how the different separation types have varied over the past 10 years.

Figure 2.19: Ongoing separations, 1995–96 to 2004–05

Source: APSED

Women represented 46.3% of separations during 2004–05, down from 53.0% last year. They were particularly over-represented in resignations (56.4%) and under-represented in retrenchments (36.8%).

Variation in the number of retrenchments has been the major factor influencing overall trends in separations during the past decade. During 2004–05, Defence (698) and Centrelink (463) accounted for two-thirds of all retrenchments.

Compulsory moves to non-APS agencies were also high this year, with 1236 ongoing employees transferred with the movement of the Australian Protective Service out of coverage of the Act. In total, there were 1361 compulsory moves of ongoing employees to non-APS agencies.

Separations by age group for 2003–04 and 2004–05, and the change over the two years, are shown in Table 2.3. The proportion of ongoing employees in each age group at June 2005 is included for comparison.

Table 2.3: Separations of ongoing employees by age group, 2003–04 and 2004–05

Source: APSED

While the number of separations increased in most age groups, the rise was generally greater for older employees. This is consistent with the continuing ageing of the APS. Interestingly, the largest proportional increase was for those in the 40–44 age group.

Figure 2.20 shows the proportion of ongoing employees in the 50–65 years age range that separated through resignation or retirement, for the past 10 years. The sharp rise for 54 year-olds since 1996–97 is most likely linked to the overall reduction in retrenchments since then and to the financial incentive for some members of the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) to resign just before their 55th birthday (the 54/11 effect). The relative decline in age 54 resignations during 2002–03 and the plateau during 2003–04 may be related to the lower exit rates from the CSS during some eighteen months of that period. The number of resignations for age 54 rose again during 2004–05 (as did the CSS exit rates).

Figure 2.20: Resignation/retirement rate for selected ages, 1995–96 to 2004–05

Source: APSED

10 The method used to calculate the proportion of employees with graduate or tertiary qualifications includes those with qualifications at bachelor degree and above. It excludes from the denominator those for whom no data was provided by agencies, and those who chose not to provide details for their highest educational qualification.

11 As previous service is, in part, linked through an employee’s name, it is possible that a small proportion of these people who may have changed their name had some prior experience that is not included here.

12 Age retirements includes resignations after age 55.

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