Labour Account Australia

Latest release

The Australian Labour Account provides quarterly time series data, consisting of four quadrants: Jobs, Persons, Hours and Payments

Reference period
September 2024
Released
6/12/2024
  • Next Release 7/03/2025
    Labour Account Australia, December 2024
  • Next Release 6/06/2025
    Labour Account Australia, March 2025
  • View all releases

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024:

  • total jobs increased 1.5% to 16.3 million
  • filled jobs increased 1.6% to 16.0 million
  • secondary jobs increased 4.1% to 1.1 million
  • proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.1%
  • multiple job-holders increased 2.8% to 986,400
  • hours worked increased 0.8% to 5.9 billion hours.
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
  Sep-24Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs    
 Total jobs16,329,1001.5%2.5%
 Filled jobs15,991,5001.6%3.0%
 Job vacancies337,700-3.5%-17.8%
 Main jobs14,880,1001.5%3.1%
 Secondary jobs1,111,4004.1%2.5%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.1%nana
People    
 Employed people14,835,7001.1%3.1%
 Multiple job holders986,4002.8%3.2%
 Multiple job holding rate6.6%nana
Hours    
 Hours actually worked5,940.6 million0.8%1.6%
Payments    
 Average income per employed person$24,027.900.5%2.1%
Key statistics - Trend
  Sep-24Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs    
 Total jobs16,273,9000.9%2.6%
 Filled jobs15,935,1000.9%3.1%
 Job vacancies338,800-3.0%-16.8%
 Main jobs14,833,4001.0%3.2%
 Secondary jobs1,101,7000.6%1.5%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.1%nana
People    
 Employed people14,814,7000.9%2.9%
 Multiple job holders977,9000.8%1.9%
 Multiple job holding rate6.6%nana
Hours    
 Hours actually worked5,928.7 million0.7%1.3%
Payments    
 Average income per employed person$24,019.500.4%2.4%


 

New estimates for measuring unpaid care in the Labour Account

Given the increasing interest in measuring unpaid care in Australia, on the 29th November 2024 the ABS released an information paper with details on initial concepts, methods and experimental estimates on the total hours spent on unpaid care and their monetary value. It can be found in Measuring the labour contribution of unpaid care in the Labour Account.

This is the first step towards expanding the Labour Account to measure unpaid care and add demographic breakdowns. Following a consultation period, an additional information paper will be released in mid-2025 to provide a further update on this work. 
 

Labour Account time series reaches 30 years

With the September quarter 2024 release of the Labour Account, the time series now contains 30 years of data from September quarter 1994 onwards. Spotlight on the Australian labour market over the last 30 years provides a series of summary snapshots exploring changes in the Australian labour market between September quarter 1994 and September quarter 2024 using Labour Account data.
 

Guide to labour statistics

The Labour Account is the best source of quarterly industry and sector data. 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 guide data. 

Factors affecting interpretation

Revisions this quarter

Stock and flow estimates

Jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024:

  • filled jobs increased by 1.6%, following a 0.6% rise in the June quarter 2024, and 3.0% through the year
  • the number of main jobs increased by 213,700 (1.5%)
  • the proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.1%
  • the number of public sector jobs increased by 2.7%, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 1.4%.

Total jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024, the total number of jobs increased by 244,700 (1.5%). This consisted of an increase of 257,100 filled jobs and a decrease of 12,400 job vacancies.

Filled jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024, the number of filled jobs increased by 257,100 to 16.0 million.

  1. Larger than usual quarter-to-quarter changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.
Filled jobs, by industry, seasonally adjusted
Filled jobs ('000)Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)470.81.54.6
Mining (B)234.21.46.7
Manufacturing (C)936.72.61.6
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)136.30.7-1.2
Construction (E)1,241.60.83.1
Wholesale trade (F)560.8-1.0-3.9
Retail trade (G)1,550.41.64.0
Accommodation and food services (H)1,136.40.4-12.0
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)700.21.1-0.4
Information media and telecommunications (J)204.3-0.6-7.4
Financial and insurance services (K)520.11.93.4
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)292.91.5-0.8
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,325.42.43.5
Administrative and support services (N)1,067.8-2.47.6
Public administration and safety (O)891.62.810.5
Education and training (P)1,257.51.83.0
Health care and social assistance (Q)2,635.14.311.4
Arts and recreation services (R)263.2-2.0-6.0
Other services (S)566.32.22.6
Total all industries15,991.51.63.0

Main and secondary jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024:

  • main jobs increased by 213,700 (1.5%)
  • secondary jobs increased by 43,400 (4.1%)
  • the proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs increased to 6.9%.

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

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

Statistical discrepancy - Filled jobs

People

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024:

  • the total number of employed people increased by 1.1% to 14.8 million
  • the number of multiple job-holders increased by 2.8%
  • unemployed people decreased by 7,800 people to 600,000.
  1. Larger than usual quarter-to-quarter changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.

The three industries with the highest number of employed people in the September quarter 2024 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade, and Professional, scientific and technical services. 

Hours

In seasonally adjusted terms, in the September quarter 2024, the total number of hours actually worked increased by 46.7 million hours (0.8%) to 5,940.6 million hours.

  1. Larger than usual quarter-to-quarter changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.

The three industries with the highest number of hours actually worked in the September quarter 2024 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, in the September quarter 2024:

  • total labour income increased by $5,478 million (1.6%) to $356,470 million
  • the average labour income per employed person increased by 0.5% to $24,028
  • total compensation of employees increased by 1.5% to $327,147 million
  • labour income from self-employment increased by 2.3% to $29,323 million
  • total labour costs increased by $5,681 million (1.5%) to $379,568 million.

 

  1. Larger than usual quarter-to-quarter changes occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ABS recommends caution when using trend estimates published in spreadsheets in this release for this period.

The three industries with the highest total labour income in the September quarter 2024 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

Subdivison datasets

Industry subdivision estimates are available through Data Explorer.

Data Explorer datasets

Labour Account balanced - Quarterly balanced original estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Subdivision, Division and 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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