EMPLOYMENT

Census of Population and Housing

The 2006 Census of Population and Housing collected employment data relating to the job in which a person worked the most hours during the week before the Census.

A total of 41,525 people were employed in publishing and 37,543 people were employed in the printing of newspapers, periodicals and books. A further 31,633 people were employed in the wholesaling and/or retailing of books, newspapers, magazines and stationery.

Of those working in the printing/publishing sector of the literature and print media industry, 46% were employed in a cultural occupation, compared with only 2% of those employed in the wholesaling and retailing sector. The most common cultural occupations recorded were print journalists (5,006 people employed), printing machinists (4,846) and newspaper or periodical editors (3,033). Of the non-cultural occupations recorded for this industry, sales assistants (15,208) and retail managers (7,896) were the most common.

11.5 Persons employed in literature and print media industries(a)(b), By occupation - August 2006
	Printing	Book and magazine wholesaling	Newspaper and book retailing	Newspaper publishing	Magazine and other periodical publishing	Book publishing	Internet publishing and broadcasting
	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
Authors	9	12	18	40	44	241	4
Book or script editors	6	45	3	10	25	564	20
Classified advertising clerks	10	-	4	430	27	3	-
Copywriters	10	-	3	30	6	7	3
Newspaper or periodical editors	28	14	13	1 700	1 075	141	62
Print journalists	53	-	17	4 161	730	26	19
Proof readers	46	-	3	74	11	43	-
Radio journalists	-	-	-	11	-	-	-
Technical writers	3	3	4	3	5	37	6
Television journalists	-	-	-	19	-	-	-
Binders and finishers	1 513	19	4	24	48	309	3
Screen printers	859	-	-	-	-	-	-
Graphic pre-press trades workers	1 717	6	9	895	126	100	3
Printing machinists	3 186	3	11	1 331	206	106	3
Small offset printers	283	-	-	-	-	7	-
Printer's assistants	1 592	7	5	709	71	76	3
Printing table workers	1 031	-	5	166	42	89	-
Other cultural occupations	7 614	157	134	2 783	1 310	621	182
Total cultural occupations	17 960	266	233	12 386	3 726	2 370	308
Other occupations	19 583	3 357	27 777	14 187	4 852	4 004	850
Total occupations	37 543	3 623	28 010	26 573	8 578	6 374	1 158
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Cells in this table have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data.
(b) In their main job in the week before Census Night.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing, 2006.

Book Publishers Survey

The 2003-04 ABS Book Publishers Survey reported that there were 5,300 people employed by the 244 businesses involved in book publishing, which was virtually the same as the previous year.

11.6 BOOK PUBLISHERS(a), Employment - 2002-03 and 2003-04
	2002-03	2003-04
	no.	no.
Males	1 784	1 848
Females	3 556	3 452
Persons	5 341	5 300
(a) 'Book publishers' includes only businesses for which the predominant activity is book publishing. Employment includes working proprietors.
Source: Book Publishers, 2003-04 (cat. no. 1363.0).

Book Retailers Survey

The 2003-04 ABS Book Retailers Survey showed that there were 8,717 people employed in the 561 businesses predominantly involved in book retailing. The largest increase in employment in this sector occurred between 2002-03 and 2003-04, with an increase of 19%.

11.7 BOOKSHOPS(a), Employment - 2001-02 to 2003-04
	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
	no.	no.	no.
Males	2 398	2 383	2 855
Females	4 685	4 953	5 862
Persons	7 083	7 336	8 717
(a) Includes only those businesses which are classified according to the ANZSIC as newspaper, book and stationery retailing and for which the value of new book sales comprises at least 50% of all retail sales.
Source: Book Retailers, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 1371.0).

Work Survey

Additional information on people's involvement in literature and print media was also collected in the ABS 2007 Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities Survey.

According to this survey, some 606,500 people contributed their writing skills in the 12-months before interview, with 40% of these receiving some payment for their contributions.

A further 208,400 people had a work involvement in publishing in the 12-months before interview, with just over one-half (51%) receiving some payment for their efforts.

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