APS at a glance - All staff
At 30 June 2008 there were 160,011 staff in the APS. This total comprised:
- 147,598 ongoing staff (up by 2.7% from 143,742 in June 2007)
- 12,413 non-ongoing staff (up by 6.3% from 11,677 in June 2007)
During 2007–08:
- 15,790 ongoing employees were engaged (down by 18.7% from 19,415 in 2006–07)
- 11,946 ongoing employees separated from the APS (up by 13.8% from 10,498 in 2006–07)
- 549 employees moved into coverage of the PS Act, of these 73.0% (401) were non-ongoing staff1
Size of the Australian Public Service
At June 2008 there were 160,011 staff in the Australian Public Service employed under the PS Act. This represented an increase of 3.0% from the June 2007 number of 155,419. Figure 1 shows ongoing and non-ongoing employee numbers by sex for June 2007 and June 2008.
During 2007–08, there was an increase in the number of ongoing staff, from 143,742 employees at June 2007 to 147,598 employees at June 2008 (an increase of 3,856 or 2.7%). Excluding agencies affected by AAO changes, the largest increases in ongoing staff numbers were in ATO (1,160 or 5.4%), Defence (671 or 3.3%) and Customs (369 or 6.4%). These agencies accounted for over half of the increase in ongoing staff numbers. The largest reduction in ongoing staff numbers was in Centrelink (down by 1,203 or 4.5%).
Non-ongoing staff numbers rose by 6.3%, from 11,677 at June 2007 to 12,413 at June 2008. Excluding agencies affected by AAO changes, those with the largest increase in non-ongoing employment were Immigration (266) and ATO (202). The agency with the largest reduction in non-ongoing employment was Defence (236). Appendix 4 ‘PS Act coverage changes’ and Appendix 5 ‘Changes to Administrative Arrangements, 2007–08’ should be carefully noted when examining tables that compare agency numbers from one year to the next.
Size of agencies
The 10 agencies listed in Table A accounted for over two-thirds of total APS staff (ongoing and non-ongoing) at June 2008. The ranking of the three largest agencies has remained unchanged for the last eight years, although the gap between the size of Centrelink and the ATO has decreased over the past year. Together, these three agencies account for just under half of the total APS staff.
| Agency | No. of staff at June 2008 | % of total APS staff |
|---|---|---|
| Source: Table 2, page 17 | ||
| Centrelink | 26,157 | 16.3 |
| Australian Taxation Office | 24,423 | 15.3 |
| Defence | 21,629 | 13.5 |
| Immigration | 7,123 | 4.5 |
| Human Services | 6,363 | 4.0 |
| Australian Customs Services | 6,285 | 3.9 |
| DEEWR | 6,143 | 3.8 |
| Medicare Australia | 5,914 | 3.7 |
| Health & Ageing | 5,470 | 3.4 |
| Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry | 5,115 | 3.2 |
| Total | 114,622 | 71.6 |
Ongoing staff
Composition
At June 2008, ongoing employees accounted for 92.2% of the APS, a slight decrease in their representation from the previous year.
The number of ongoing employees working part-time rose by 7.3% during the year, up from 16,775 (11.7% of all ongoing employees) at June 2007 to 17,997 (12.2%) at June 2008. Women are much more likely to work part-time with 18.8% working part-time at June 2008 compared with 3.4% of men.
Classification
At June 1994, the APS 1–2 and APS 5–6 classification groups accounted for almost equal proportions of ongoing staff with 27.3% and 26.2% respectively. The proportion in the APS 3–4 classification group was slightly higher at 29.6%. By June 2008, the APS 1–2 level had fallen to just 4.2% of all ongoing employees. Over the same period, the proportion at the APS 3–4 and APS 5–6 levels rose, with each group now accounting for over one-third of all ongoing employees.
Representation of Executive Level (EL) employees has risen from 14.6% to 25.1% over the same period. The size of the Senior Executive Service (SES) has fluctuated between 1.3% and 1.8% and is currently 1.8%.
At June 2008, trainees and graduate trainees accounted for 1.1% of ongoing staff. It should be noted that the number of graduate trainees does not represent the number of graduates recruited at all levels. During 2007–08, 60.6% of ongoing employees engaged were graduates.2
The APS 6 group remains the largest size category of employment in the APS, followed by APS 4 and EL1.
Figure 2 shows the change in the proportion of employees in selected classifications over the last 15 years.
Senior Executive Service
At June 2008, there were 2,692 ongoing SES employees in the APS, up from 2,535 last year. The proportional increase in the size of the SES during 2007–08 (6.2%) was considerably larger than the growth in the APS overall (2.7%).
The composition of the SES has generally remained stable over the last 15 years. At June 2008, SES Band 1 employees comprised just under three quarters of the SES at 74.9%, with SES Band 2 at 20.0% and SES Band 3 at 5.2%.
The major change in the SES over the last 15 years has been the steady increase in the representation of women, from 16.9% at June 1994 to 37.0% at June 2008. Women are still concentrated at lower levels in the SES, although this year the strongest proportional growth for women was at SES Band 3, where their representation increased from 32 to 37 people—a rise of 15.6%.
Figure 3: Ongoing employees: representation of women in the SES, June 1994 to June 2008
Source: Table 8
Age
The median age of ongoing APS employees at June 2008 was 42 years.
The number of ongoing employees in the under 25 age group rose from 7,158 to 7,198 (a slight decrease in proportional terms from 5.0% to 4.9%) during 2007–08. Over the 15 years to June 2008 this group’s representation has fallen from 8.4% to 4.9% of all ongoing employees.
The strongest growth in recent years has been in the representation of older age groups. Fifteen years ago, employees in the 45–54 age group represented 22.1% of all employees. By June 2008, this had risen to 29.9%. Similarly, the 55 and over age group has increased from 5.6% to 11.9% over the past 15 years.
Male and female employment
Over the past 15 years, women’s representation in the APS has increased from 47.8% to 57.1% of ongoing employees. In general, women are still employed at lower classification levels than men, but the gap is decreasing. Fifteen years ago, 68.8% of women were in the APS 1–4 group, but by June 2008 this had decreased to 44.6%. For men, 46.0% were in the APS 1–4 group 15 years ago, compared with 28.6% at June 2008. Changes in women’s representation by classification over the past 15 years are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Ongoing employees: women’s representation in selected classification groups, June 1994 to June 2008
Source: Table 8
Location
Almost two-thirds of APS staff are located outside Canberra. There was a slight increase in the proportion of ongoing staff based in the ACT— from 35.8% to 36.6%—in the year to June 2008.
Table B shows the distribution of ongoing staff by location at June 2008.
| State/Territory | No. of staff | % of ongoing staff |
|---|---|---|
| Source: Table 20, page 69 | ||
| Australian Capital Territory | 53,987 | 36.6 |
| New South Wales | 28,439 | 19.3 |
| Victoria | 24,131 | 16.3 |
| Queensland | 16,932 | 11.5 |
| South Australia | 8,959 | 6.1 |
| Western Australia | 7,946 | 5.4 |
| Tasmania | 3,528 | 2.4 |
| Northern Territory | 2,480 | 1.7 |
| Overseas | 1,196 | 0.8 |
| Total | 147,598 | 100.0 |
Engagements
Over the 2007–08 financial year, there were 15,790 engagements of ongoing employees. The agencies with the largest number of engagements were ATO (2,181), Defence (2,075), Centrelink (1,496) Human Services (815), Customs (663) and DAFF (656).
Women comprised 61.0% of ongoing engagements during the financial year 2007–08. Nearly half of engagements for women were at the APS 3–4 level.
Fifteen years ago, 57.1% of all ongoing engagements were at the APS 1–2 level; by 2007–08, this had dropped to 9.8%. In contrast, the APS 3–4 group increased from 16.5% to 44.9% of all ongoing engagements over the same period. This classification group now accounts for most ‘base-level’ recruitment. Figure 5 shows the proportion of engagements by classification over the last 15 years.
Figure 5: Ongoing engagements: proportion in selected classifications, 1993–94 to 2007–08
Source: Table 24
Separations
There were 11,946 separations of ongoing staff in 2007–08. This was an increase of 1,448 (or 13.8%) over the previous year (10,498). Resignations were the most common form of separation in both years. As a proportion of all separations, resignations have increased from 43.2% in 1993–94 to 72.2% in 2007–08. There has, however, been considerable variation over the 15 years. In general, resignations have been lower in those years where the proportion of retrenchments has been higher. These trends are shown in Figure 6.
The number of resignations rose from 7,719 in 2006–07 to 8,628 in 2007–08, a rise of 11.8%. The largest proportional increases during the year were in age retirements (up by 29.4%) and retrenchments (up by 20.0%). Invalidity retirements also rose by 15.2%.
Figure 6: Ongoing employees: selected separations as a proportion of total separations, 1993–94 to 2007–08
Source: Table 36
Women accounted for 57.6% of resignations during 2007–08, slightly higher than their representation in the APS workforce. Of people resigning, almost one in five (18.0%) had been working in the APS for less than a year.
Almost one third (30.0%) of men who took an age retirement had been employed in the APS for over 30 years in comparison with 8.0% of women.
The overall separation rate is calculated as the total number of separations of ongoing employees during the financial year divided by the average number of ongoing employees at 30 June 2007 and 30 June 2008. During 2007–08 the separation rate was 8.2%. 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 in Table 12 should be used at agency level when assessing agency ‘turnover’.
Educational qualifications3
Of those ongoing employees who have supplied information about their educational qualifications, 52.5% have a bachelor degree or higher. Men are more likely than women to have graduate qualifications—55.7% compared with 49.8% for women. Indigenous employees (26.9%) are much less likely to have graduate qualifications and NESB1 employees (74.5%) are much more likely to have such qualifications than the APS average. Those with a disability are somewhat less likely to have graduate qualifications (42.7%) compared with the APS overall.
Figure 7: Ongoing employees: EEO group by highest educational qualification, June 2008
Source: Table 49
1 In November 2007, 380 employees of the Mersey campus of the North West Regional Hospital in Tasmania became non-ongoing employees of the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA).
2 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 of their highest educational qualification
3 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 of their highest educational qualification.