MEDIA RELEASE
April 29, 2010	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra Time)	47/2010

In November 2009, one in five, or 20% of Australian workers were casual employees, that is, they did not have paid holiday or sick leave entitlements. This represents over two million people and was a 0.7 percentage point increase from November 2008.

The majority (61%) of employed people were employees with leave entitlements, while a further 10% were independent contractors and 9% were other business operators.

Women were more likely than men to not have paid leave entitlements (25% compared with 16%).

Over half (58%) of all employed people in the Accommodation and food services industry did not have paid leave entitlements. Other industries, where there was a high proportion of employed people without paid leave entitlements, included:

• Retail trade (35%)
• Arts and recreation services (32%).

The industries with the lowest proportion of employed people without paid leave entitlements were Financial and insurance services, as well as Mining (both 6%) .

The occupation with the highest proportion of employed people without paid leave entitlements was Sales (44%), followed by Labourers (41%). Occupations with a low proportion of employed people without paid leave entitlements included Managers (4%) and Professionals (9%).

Almost half of all employees (45%) were entitled to paid maternity/paternity leave in November 2009. This was an increase on the 44% recorded in November 2008.

Just over half (52%) of all independent contractors were aged between 35 to 54 years, compared to 43% of employees in this age group.

Further details can be found in Forms of Employment, Australia, November 2009 (cat no. 6359.0).

Media notes:

• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source.