EMPLOYMENT

Census of Population and Housing

In 2006, the Census of Population and Housing recorded 7,007 people whose main job was in the libraries and archives 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 within the industry were librarians (2,007 people), library assistants (1,431 people) and library technicians (1,378 people).

10.10 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES INDUSTRY(a)(b), By occupation - August 2006
Cultural occupations	Number	%
Librarian	2 007	28.6
Library assistant	1 431	20.4
Library technician	1 378	19.7
Archivist	183	2.6
Other cultural occupations	246	3.5
Total cultural occupations	5 245	74.9
Other occupations(c)	1 762	25.1
Total occupations	7 007	100.0
(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.
(c) Includes not stated and inadequately described.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing, 2006.

Many people working in library-related occupations are not working in the libraries and archives industry. The local government administration industry employed 1,937 librarians, higher education employed 1,885 librarians, and school education (primary and secondary) employed 406 librarians.

The 2006 Census of Population and Housing also counted 898 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.

10.11 PERSONS WITH LIBRARY-RELATED OCCUPATIONS(a)(b), By industry - August 2006
Industry	Librarians	Library technicians	Library assistants	Archivists	Total
Local government administration	1 937	1 229	1 954	50	5 170
Libraries and archives	2 008	1 378	1 430	182	4 998
Higher education	1 885	967	1 458	67	4 377
Secondary education	209	702	1 000	51	1 962
Primary education	197	716	711	5	1 629
Technical and vocational education and training	671	333	219	7	1 230
Combined primary and secondary education	190	321	485	61	1 057
State government administration	310	174	93	88	665
Legal services	270	48	46	12	376
Hospitals	226	70	27	10	333
Central government administration	221	53	20	34	328
Scientific research services	128	40	13	6	187
Other industries	1 825	477	800	325	3 427
Total all industries	10 077	6 508	8 256	898	25 739
(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.

Work Survey

The ABS 2007 survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities provides another perspective on employment in libraries and archives. This survey provides information on the number of paid and unpaid workers in library or archive organisations. It also provides the number of people working in these organisations as part of a second job. However, it does not contain information on type of occupation.

The survey found that there were 108,500 people aged 15 years and over who had some work involvement in a library or archive in the 12-months to April 2007, of whom 35,900 (33%) received some payment.


Public Libraries Survey

The 2003-04 ABS survey of Public Libraries found that at the end of June 2004, there were 10,606 staff employed in local government libraries and 1,865 employed in national and state libraries.

Some 42% of those employed in local government libraries were permanent full-time workers while 76% of those employed in national and state libraries were permanent full-time workers.

10.12 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES - June 2004
	Males	Females	Persons
LOCAL GOVERNMENT LIBRARIES
Permanent full-time	793	3 678	4 472
Permanent part-time	300	3 144	3 444
Casuals	360	2 330	2 691
Total employees	1 454	9 152	10 606
NATIONAL AND STATE LIBRARIES
Permanent full-time	480	937	1 417
Permanent part-time	53	242	295
Casuals	60	93	153
Total employees	593	1 272	1 865
Source: Public Libraries, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8561.0).

The same survey found that at the end of June 2004, there were 811 persons employed by the eight national and state archives in Australia, of which 471 (or 58%) were female.

The number of volunteers working for local government libraries in June 2004 totalled 6,315 people. The number of volunteers working in national and state libraries was 416 and there were 122 volunteers working in national and state archives.

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