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EMPLOYMENT

Census of Population and Housing

In 2001, the Census of Population and Housing recorded 11,461 people whose main job was working in the libraries industry - the ABS definition of this industry includes people working for archives organisations but excludes people working for libraries located in educational institutions (e.g. school libraries) and specialist libraries (e.g. those located in government departments and within business organisations). The most common occupations were Library assistants (3,093 people), Librarians (2,974 people) and Library technicians (2,592 people).

10.9 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE LIBRARIES INDUSTRY(a), By occupation - August 2001
		Number	%
Cultural occupations
	Library assistants	3 093	27.0
	Librarians	2 974	26.0
	Library technicians	2 592	22.6
	Archivists	207	1.8
	Other cultural occupations	215	1.9
	Total cultural occupations	9 081	79.3
Other occupations		2 367	20.7
Total all occupations		11 448	100.0
(a) In their main job in the week before Census Night.
ABS, Employment in Culture, Australia, 2001 (cat. no. 6273.0).

The extent to which library activity is carried out in other industries can be gauged from Table 10.10. While the libraries industry employed 2,974 librarians, post-school education (university and technical education) employed 2,499 librarians, school education employed 627 librarians, while government administration employed 1,467 librarians.

10.10 PERSONS WITH LIBRARY-RELATED OCCUPATIONS(a), By industry - August 2001
Industry	Librarians	Library technicians	Library assistants	Archivists	Total
Libraries	2 974	2 592	3 093	207	8 866
Post-school education	2 499	1 219	1 664	49	5 431
School education	627	1 454	2 242	75	4 398
Government administration	1 467	334	532	131	2 464
Health and community services	404	117	96	21	638
Legal and accounting services	352	73	82	22	529
Motion picture, radio and television services	123	19	48	29	219
Scientific research	160	29	20	7	216
Other industries	1 708	311	632	259	2 910
Total all industries	10 314	6 148	8 409	800	25 671
(a) In their main job in the week before Census Night.
ABS, 2001 Census of Population and Housing, data available on request.

The 2001 Census of Population and Housing also counted 800 people whose main job in the week before the Census was as an archivist. This included not only those employed in the national and state archives, but also those working for government organisations, educational institutions, commercial organisations, etc.

Work Survey

The ABS 2001 Survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities provides another perspective on employment in libraries and archives.

While not being able to provide information on the occupation of people working in a library or archive, or the industries in which librarians or archivists might work, it does give a better indication of the total number of people working in library or archive organisations by providing information on those working in both a paid and unpaid capacity and those who are involved as part of a second job.

The survey found that there were 76,000 people aged 15 years and over who had some work involvement in a library or archive in the 12 months to April 2001, of whom 31,200 (41%) received some payment.

Census of Public Libraries

The 1999-2000 ABS Census of Public Libraries found that at the end of June 2000, there were 9,592 staff employed in local government libraries and 2,248 employed in national and state libraries.

Some 44% of those employed in local government libraries were permanent full-time workers while 74% of those employed in national and state libraries were permanent full-time workers.

This census also found that at the end of June 2000, there were 756 persons employed by the eight national and state archives in Australia.

10.11 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES - June 2000
Occupation	Males	Females	Persons
LOCAL GOVERNMENT LIBRARIES
Librarians	359	2 063	2 422
Other employees	926	6 244	7 170
Total	1 285	8 307	9 592
NATIONAL AND STATE LIBRARIES
Librarians	167	546	713
Other employees	546	989	1 535
Total	713	1 535	2 248
ABS, Public Libraries, Australia, 1999-2000 (cat. no. 8561.0).

The 1999-2000 ABS Census of Public Libraries showed that the number of volunteers working for local government libraries in June 2000 totalled 4,493 people. Data are not available on the number of volunteers working in national and state libraries and archives.