Chapter 2: Statistical snapshot

Abbreviations

A list of the abbreviations used in this report is available in the Glossary

Ongoing and non-ongoing employees

The growth in overall employee numbers during the past year reflected growth in both ongoing and non-ongoing employment categories. Ongoing employees grew more in actual numbers, but the proportional growth was greatest for non-ongoing employment.

Ongoing employees

During 2005–06, ongoing employment rose by 9.1%, from 123,452 at June 2005 to 134,632 at June 2006. This increase continued a trend that has been evident for the past seven years. The growth was the largest proportional increase in that period, and considerably higher than the 0.8% growth in 2004–05 and1.7% growth in 2003–04.

The largest increases in ongoing employee numbers were in Centrelink (up by 978 or 4.0%), Defence (921 or 5.2%), DEWR (592 or 20.3%) and Customs (531 or 10.8%). Smaller agencies that increased in size were the National Water Commission (16 or 66.7%), PM&C (119 or 32.9%), Questacon (16 or 28.1%), and the National Blood Authority (9 or 28.1%). The largest decreases in ongoing employment were DVA (down by 97 or 4.0%), BoM (64 or 4.8%), Defence Housing Authority (61 or 10.3%) and Health (54 or 1.4%).

The largest contributor to the total growth was Medicare Australia, which moved into coverage, with 4968 ongoing employees. Due to its size, this agency’s contribution to changes in the structure of the APS over the year is significant.

Medicare Australia, for example, has a highly feminised workforce, with 80.3% of its ongoing employees being female. Partly reflecting the impact of Medicare Australia, increases in ongoing employment for women were much greater than for men.The number of women rose from 66,872 to 75,114, a rise of12.3%. For men the number rose from 56,580 to 59,518,an increase of 5.2%.Trends for employment by sex are shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Ongoing employees by sex, 1997 to 2006

Source: APSED

There is wide variation between agencies in the proportional representation of men and women. Further analysis can be found in Chapter 5.

Non-ongoing employees

Non-ongoing employee numbers grew substantially this year too, from 10,141 at June 2005 to 11,802 at June 2006—an increase of 16.4%.This was the highest proportional growth in non-ongoing employment for many years. The growth in non-ongoing employment during the past two years has more than compensated for the large decline in 2003–04.

The growth in non-ongoing employment was greater for men (17.2%) than for women (15.9%), although women still account for a much higher proportion of non-ongoing employees (62.8% of non-ongoing employees are women compared with 55.8% of ongoing employees).

Over half of the growth in non-ongoing employment was concentrated in five agencies: Centrelink (up by 258), Defence (256), ABS (236), DEST (209) and DIMA (207). The only agency to experience a large decrease in non-ongoing employment was the ATO where non-ongoing numbers fell by 787 or 43.3%.

Figure 2.3 shows how non-ongoing employment as a proportion of total employment has changed over the past decade. While the proportion has grown in the past two years, it is still lower than it was ten years ago. The representation rate for women has been consistently higher than that for men over this period. Non-ongoing employment in Medicare Australia (5.5%) is proportionally lower than in the APS overall. Excluding Medicare Australia, the proportional increase in non-ongoing employment during 2005–06 would have been even higher.

Figure 2.3: Non-ongoing employees as a proportion of total employees, 1997 to 2006

Source: APSED

As a proportion of total employment, non-ongoing employment has increased to 8.1%, up from 7.6% in June 2005.The proportion of non-ongoing employment among men rose to 6.9% (up from 6.2%) and women to 9.0% (up from 8.7%).

Non-ongoing employees can be engaged in three different categories: specified term, specified task or for duties that are irregular or intermittent. At June 2006, the majority (82.9%) were engaged for a specified term, 4.9% for a specified task, and 12.2% for irregular or intermittent duties. This varies widely between agencies. At June 2006 the following agencies had at least 40% of their non-ongoing employees engaged as irregular or intermittent—CGC (83.3%), Finance (74.3%), GBRMPA (66.7%), Questacon (55.4%), NAA (49.2%), APSC (46.6%), AAT (46.5%) and ABCC (42.9%).

Non-ongoing employees have historically been concentrated at lower classification levels—at June 2006, 67.4% of non-ongoing employees were in the APS 1–4 range, compared with 40.5% of ongoing employees. Well over half of all APS 1 employees (55.3%) are non-ongoing, as are a quarter of APS 2 employees (25.4%).

As Figure 2.4 shows, the representation of non-ongoing employees at higher classifications is much lower.

Figure 2.4: Proportion of total employees at each classification who are non–ongoing by sex, June 2006

Source: APSED

Nevertheless, over the past five years non-ongoing employment has become less concentrated at the APS 1–4 classifications, falling from 76.8% at June 2000 to 67.4% at June 2006. Over the same period, EL employees, as a proportion of all non-ongoing employees, rose from 5.6% to 10.5%. The growth in non-ongoing employment has been much stronger at higher classification levels. For example, at June 2006, 5.6% of APS 5 employees were non-ongoing, up from 4.4% last year and 3.9% of ELs were non-ongoing, compared with 3.3% last year. For SES employees, 4.8% were engaged as non-ongoing at June 2006, up from 4.7% last year and 3.9% in 2000.

The reasons for this shift are not clear. It may reflect agencies’ preferences in the way they structure their employment arrangements, particularly in allowing them more flexibility in the allocation of resources and to deal with fluctuating budgets and short-term priorities. It may also reflect a tightening labour market, where agencies are providing more flexible options to employees, including those interested in working on shorter-term projects. There appears to be a trend for employees who have left the APS, particularly mature-age workers, to return on a non-ongoing basis. At June 2006, 31.3% of non-ongoing employees were aged 45 and over, up from 30.4% last year and 24.6% in 2000.These trends will be monitored in future reports. This issue is discussed further in the section on re-engagement and prior service later in this chapter.

As Figure 2.4 shows, non-ongoing employment is highly feminised, especially at lower classifications. Women account for at least 60% of non-ongoing employees up to APS 5. Female non-ongoing representation at EL classifications is similar to female representation among ongoing employees at these levels (42.4% compared with 42.2%) but is much lower in the SES (17.5% among non-ongoing employees compared with 34.8% among ongoing employees).

The three largest agencies—Centrelink (1179), Defence (1176) and ATO (1032)—accounted for 28.7% of all non-ongoing employees. These agencies account for 48.7% of all ongoing employees.

In general, smaller agencies engage a higher proportion of their employees on a non-ongoing basis than do large agencies. Of the 20 agencies with more than 20% of their employees employed as non-ongoing, all had fewer than 250 ongoing employees, except for DHA, Aboriginal Hostels Ltd and Comsuper. Those agencies with the highest proportion of non-ongoing employment were Questacon (68.3%), AIATSIS (55.5%), TSRA (54.2%) and EOWA (50.0%).