State of the Service Report 2020-21

Published

The Hon Ben Morton MP
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Minister for the Public Service
Special Minister of State
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Minister

In accordance with Section 44(1) of the Public Service Act 1999, I present you with my report on the state of the Australian Public Service for 2020–21.

Section 44(3) of the Public Service Act 1999 requires that this report is laid before each House of Parliament by 30 November 2021.

Yours sincerely

Signature of Peter Woolcott AO

Peter Woolcott AO
Australian Public Service Commissioner
29 November 2021

Preface

Section 44 of the Public Service Act 1999 (Cth) stipulates that the Australian Public Service Commissioner issue a report each year to the agency’s Minister for presentation to the Australian Parliament. It is required to report on the state of the Australian Public Service (APS) during the past year.

The State of the Service Report 2020–21 identifies year-to-year trends in workforce participation and capability across the APS.

This is the 24th annual report on the state of the APS presented to Parliament.

The report is informed by the results of the 2020 and 2021 APS Employee Census. It is also draws on the APS Employee Database, the APS Agency Survey, and other data collections and research undertaken to evaluate the APS during the past year.

The appendixes to the State of the Service Report 2020–21 comprise:

  • APS workforce information sources
  • APS agencies
  • APS workforce trends
  • supporting statistics to the report
  • unscheduled absence data.

At a glance

At 30 June 2021 the APS employee headcount was 153,945, an increase of 2.3% from 30 June 2020. There were 10,157 engagements and 8,430 separations over 2020–21.
  • 133,952 employees were ongoing and 19,993 were non-ongoing.
  • The patterns of work were 80.6% full time, 13.9% part time and 5.5% casual.
Data on the gender proportions by classification. Women account for more than half of all classifications except for the Graduate, SES Band 2 and SES Band 3.
Data on the proportion of employees by classification. The APS6 and EL1 groups make up more than 40% of the APS. The APS4 and APS5 groups make up more than 30%.
Data on the proportion of employees by age. More than half of APS employees are aged between 35 and 54. 20% are aged between 25 and 34 and 19% are over 55.

 

Data on the Diversity of APS employees. 60.2% are women. 3.5% are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. 4.1% report having a disability. 22.3% are born overseas, with 14.7% born in a non-English speaking country. 7% identify as LGBTIQA+.
A map of Australia representing the location of the APS workforce by state or territory as at 30 June 2021: the ACT had 58,837 employees (38.2%); NSW had 27,050 employees (17.6%); VIC had 26,002 employees (16.9%); QLD had 18,189 employees (11.8%); SA had 9,800 employees (6.4%); WA had 7,193 employees (4.7%); TAS had 3,828 employees (2.5%); the NT had 1,847 employees (1.2%). There were 1,199 APS employees located overseas (0.8%)

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