Work location in the APS
Australian Public Service (APS) employees are based in a range of locations around Australia and overseas. In Australia, APS employees are based in locations from the Snowy Mountains to Bourke and Lorde Howe Island. Overseas, APS staff work in such places as Beirut, Moscow, Canakkale and Port Vila.
Although Canberra is typically seen as the ‘home’ of the APS, nearly 63% of all APS employees are located outside the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). This equates to over 97,000 APS employees working outside the ACT.
APS employee location
Learn more about this chart: view data for Figure 1.
Many agencies have offices in a range of locations, including overseas. The choice of location of APS agencies and their staff ensures that services are delivered where they are needed most.
Over two thirds of employees in six of the larger APS agencies are located outside the ACT. These agencies include:
a. Department of Human Services – 86.8%
b. Australian Taxation Office – 87.9%
c. Department of Veteran’s Affairs – 67.8%
d. Australian Securities and Investments Commission – 99.3%
e. Bureau of Meteorology – 94.5%
f. National Disability Insurance Agency – 90%
APS level employees account for over 83% of the APS workforce in locations outside the ACT. The ACT has a significantly lower proportion of APS level staff and a correspondingly higher proportion of Executive Level staff compared to the other states and territories. Over half of all overseas based staff are Executive Level employees.
APS employee – classification by location
Learn more about this chart: view data for Figure 2.
Overseas jurisdictions and the ACT have the lowest proportion of non-ongoing employees. The proportion becomes much higher in other small locations. Over 17 percent of the APS workforce in the Northern Territory and Tasmania are non-ongoing.
Non-ongoing employees by location
Learn more about this chart: view data for Figure 3.
Analysis of the 2016 APS employee census results shows that employees in the ACT have marginally higher engagement scores across all four dimensions of engagement compared to employees in other locations. Outside the ACT there is very little variation in engagement scores between locations.
Employee engagement by location
Learn more about this chart: view data for Figure 4.