2005 NSW Workforce Profile – Highlights from the Report

Central Council, 19 June 2006

Report adopted

The annual public sector employment profile for June 2005 has just been released by the Public Employment Office. The 2005 Overview is the seventh publication in the series. There has always been a significant time lag between the date of publication and the end of June annual reporting period, but it has improved.

Comparison between the series of reports must be qualified in recognition of the fact that the basis of collection, the categories reported on and method of calculation has changed from year to year. In demonstrating employment trends at the macro-level it does provide a good overview of the broad trends. Some of the highlights are reported below.

Historical public sector employment

FTE = full time equivalent

Year ending June	FTE Year Average	FTE as at June	Total P.S. employees as at June	Proportion of the NSW labour force
1999	N/A	272,863	330,380	11.3%
2000	N/A	270,688	324,345	11.7%
2001	283,099	N/A	336,251	10.98%
2002	284,610	282,896	339,372	10.92%
2003	283,689	291,264	343,847	10.3%
2004	288,393	291,701	356,598	10.6%
2005	292,573	294,376	360,880	10.5%

The figures in the above table have been taken from the series of Overview Reports. It shows the total employment figure is overall pretty steady The Full Time Employment total for 2005 (294,376) represents an overall increase of 0.9% from the 2004 EFT total (291,701).

Whilst total employment has marginally risen over seven years, public sector employment as a proportion of the total NSW labour force has continued to drop: 11.3% in 1999 : 10.5% in 2005.

The Macro trends

Also, although 5,000 job cuts were announced by the Premier and Finance Minister in February, these are targeted at "back-office-jobs". The 2005 Overview reports the macro trends in the reporting period June 2004 - June 2005 in the following extract (Box). It is clear from this information that the cuts are selective and some areas of the public sector, such as Health and Education actually sustained marginal increases. What is also notable is that there were reported to be quite large increases in the "non-budget dependent" sector, those areas that fall outside the Budget.

Lastly, the public sector is now almost 60% female.

Employment Status

The 2005 Overview reported that as at June 2005 the following employment categories were represented across the public sector:

80.7%	Permanent
9.2%	Temporary
7.8%	Casual

Gender Pay Gap

Average full time remuneration rate for women as a percentage of average full time remuneration rate for men

1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
N/A	89	87.6	87.33	88.6	89.2	89.5

In 2005 therefore the "average remuneration for females was 89.5% of the average for males." In other words "the gap" has marginally narrowed from the previous year.

Other indices are provided in the area of female employment, which indicate that proportionally women are much, more likely to be represented in part time and temporary work, and the lower pay scales.

The Ageing Workforce

The average age in the NSW public sector was 43 years and the median was 44 years. Very low rates of permanency are in evidence for the <25 YO age group. Nearly one third of the workforce is aged 45-54 years.

EEO Trends

1.9%	Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
14.1%	Racial, Ethnic, Ethno-Religious Minority Groups
4.6%	People with a Disability