Labour Account Australia

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The Australian Labour Account provides quarterly and annual time series for four quadrants: Jobs, People, Hours and Payments

Reference period
March 2023
Released
9/06/2023

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023:

  • Total jobs increased 0.7% to 15.7 million.
  • Filled jobs increased 0.7% to 15.3 million.
  • Secondary jobs increased 3.5% to 1.1 million.
  • Proportion of vacant jobs remained at 2.8%.
  • Multiple job-holders increased 2.1% to 947,000.
  • Hours worked increased 0.5% to 5.7 billion hours.
 
 Mar-23Quarterly changeQuarterly change (%)Annual changeAnnual change (%)
Jobs     
Total jobs15,687,800102,5000.7%631,9004.2%
Filled jobs15,250,300105,1000.7%615,2004.2%
Job vacancies437,500-2,600-0.6%16,7004.0%
Main jobs14,189,20069,6000.5%514,0003.8%
Secondary jobs1,061,10035,5003.5%101,20010.5%
Proportion of vacant jobs2.8%0.0 ptsna0.0 ptsna
People     
Employed people14,248,700119,0000.8%515,2003.8%
Multiple job holders947,30019,5002.1%87,80010.2%
Multiple job holding rate6.6%0.1 ptsna0.4 ptsna
Hours     
Hours actually worked5,748.7 million30.6 million0.5%383.9 million7.2%
Payments     
Average income per employed person$22,632.10$168.600.8%$1,159.805.4%

All data are shown in seasonally adjusted terms

Guide to labour statistics

To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our Guide to labour statistics. It provides summary information on labour market topics including Industry employment data.

Data impacts and changes

Revisions this quarter

Data in the four quadrants of the Labour Account have been revised from the previously published estimates.

Revisions may be attributable to a range of factors including revisions to quarterly source data. These include:

  • revisions to Overseas Arrivals and Departures data, and
  • revisions to data from the quarterly Australian National Accounts.

Further information on revisions in the Labour Account can be found in Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods.

Revisions to published estimates are shown in Table 22 in the Data downloads section.

Upcoming change to the release of annual Labour Accounts data

The Labour Account is currently published with a combination of quarterly and annual data (for industry divisions), and annual financial year data (for industry division and sub-divisions). The financial year Labour Account release has usually been around November each year in Data Explorer, as a separate update to the quarterly Labour Account release.

The timing of annual revisions made to Labour Account quarterly and annual data has meant that the annual and quarterly series do not align. To address this, ABS intends to cease producing separate annual datasets, and instead move to an approach where financial year estimates are based on the quarterly series. To enable this, industry sub-division data will be published in Data Explorer on a quarterly basis and can be used to produce financial year (or calendar year) totals.

As outlined in Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, the method used to annualise quarterly data varies for each quadrant depending on whether the data are stock or flow estimates. The Jobs and Persons quadrants contain stock data which are measured at a point in time (the end month of each quarter). We recommend data in these quadrants be annualised using an average of the four quarterly estimates. The Volume (Hours) and Payments quadrants contain flow data which represent a measure of activity over the whole quarter (e.g. hours worked over the whole quarter). For these quadrants, the annual estimate would be the sum of the four quarterly estimates.

There will be no changes to the data currently released at the industry division level in the quarterly release.

If you have any further questions about this change, please email labour.statistics@abs.gov.au.

Jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023:

  • Filled jobs increased by 0.7%, following a 0.9% rise in the December quarter 2022. Filled jobs grew by 4.2% through the year.
  • The number of main jobs increased by 69,600 (or 0.5%).
  • The number of multiple job holders increased by 2.1%.
  • The proportion of vacant jobs remained at 2.8%.
  • The number of public sector jobs increased by 2.1%, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 0.5%.

Total jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023, the total number of jobs increased by 102,500 (or 0.7%). This consisted of a decrease of 2,600 job vacancies and an increase of 105,100 filled jobs.

Filled jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023, the number of filled jobs increased by 105,100 to 15.3 million. 

Filled jobs, by industry, March quarter 2023, seasonally adjusted
Filled jobs ('000)Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)465.00.5-0.9
Mining (B)210.81.43.6
Manufacturing (C)907.4-3.4-3.3
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)131.7-0.64.0
Construction (E)1,241.3-2.7-0.5
Wholesale trade (F)621.61.512.2
Retail trade (G)1,496.81.62.1
Accommodation and food services (H)1,324.54.914.7
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)717.80.58.3
Information media and telecommunications (J)203.0-1.85.8
Financial and insurance services (K)522.01.27.7
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)302.30.60.7
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,277.2-4.00.4
Administrative and support services (N)992.3-1.85.0
Public administration and safety (O)780.92.40.2
Education and training (P)1,161.02.54.3
Health care and social assistance (Q)2,071.13.26.1
Arts and recreation services (R)261.86.116.2
Other services (S)561.71.92.3
Total all industries15,250.30.74.2

Main and secondary jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023:

  • Main jobs increased by 69,600 (or 0.5%).
  • Secondary jobs increased by 35,500 (or 3.5%). 
  • The proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs increased to 7.0%.

The three industries with the highest number of secondary jobs were Administrative and support services, Education and training, and Health care and social assistance.

Secondary jobs can be held by people who have their main job in the same or a different industry. 

Statistical discrepancy - Filled jobs

The Labour Account compiles independent estimates of the number of filled jobs from both a household and business perspective. The difference between these two estimates is referred to as the "statistical discrepancy".  The household estimates of filled jobs are considered the best measure of labour market activity total economy level, while business sources are considered more reliable estimating the distribution of jobs across industries. As a result, the Labour Account filled jobs estimates are constrained (equivalent) to the household side.

The discrepancy between the two sources is reduced to zero through the balancing processes of the Labour Account, producing a single harmonised or "balanced" number of filled jobs. The balanced estimate of filled jobs incorporates the advantage of the industry distribution derived from business side data, whilst constraining to a total economy estimate sourced from household side data. In original terms the discrepancy between household sources and business sources was 438,100 jobs in the March quarter 2023, or 2.9% of the household estimate.

While the business sources have been showing stronger jobs growth over the COVID period, this hasn't impacted on overall Labour Accounts aggregates given the Labour Account jobs estimates are constrained to the household side.

Balancing decisions for Rental, hiring and real estate services and Other services were mostly based on household survey sources. All other industries were mostly based on business survey sources.

People

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023:

  • The total number of employed people increased by 0.8% to 14.2 million. 
  • The number of multiple job holders increased by 2.1%.
  • Unemployed people increased by 11,200 people to 512,600.

The three industries with the highest number of employed people in the March quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade, and Accommodation and food services.

Hours

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023, the total number of hours actually worked increased by 30.6 million hours (or 0.5%) to 5.7 billion hours.

The three industries with the highest number of hours actually worked in the March quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Construction, and Professional, scientific and technical services.

Payments

The Labour Account Payments quadrant presents the costs incurred by enterprises in employing labour, and the income received by people from its provision. Total income consists of compensation of employees and labour income from self-employment. The addition of other related costs to employers to total income will derive total labour costs.

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March quarter 2023:

  • Total labour income increased by $5,076 million (or 1.6%) to $322,478 million. 
  • The average labour income per employed person increased by 0.8% to $22,632.
  • Total compensation of employees increased by 2.2% to $293,121 million.
  • Labour income from self-employment decreased by 3.7% to $29,357 million.
  • Total labour costs increased by $5,919 million (1.8%) to $343,988 million. 

The three industries with the highest total labour income in the March quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Professional, scientific and technical services, and Construction.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Quarterly estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Division and Total All Industries.

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Subdivision, Division and Total All Industries.

Labour Account balanced - Balanced annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Subdivision, Division and Total All Industries.

Labour Account unbalanced - Unbalanced annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Total All Industries.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data explorer user guide.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6150.0.55.003.

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