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EMPLOYMENT

Service Industry Surveys

The 2006-07 Television, Film and Video Production and Post-production Services survey found that businesses involved in commercial free-to-air television services in Australia employed a total of 6,980 people in June 2007. A further 3,052 people were employed by subscription television broadcasters.


Census of Population and Housing

Neither the Television, Film and Video Production and Post-Production Services survey nor the ABC and SBS annual reports provide detailed breakdowns of the type of occupations in which people are involved in the radio and television industries. The 2006 Census of Population and Housing is the most detailed source of occupation information, although the data it collects relates only to a person’s main job (the job in which they worked the most hours in the week before Census Night). In August 2006, there were 12,646 people whose main job was in the free-to-air television broadcasting industry and 2,928 people in the cable and other subscription broadcasting industry. This includes people working in community television.

Over half the people employed in the free-to-air television broadcasting industry (62%) worked in cultural occupations as defined by the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications. This is quite different to cable and other subscription broadcasting industry where just 19% were employed in cultural occupations.

17.2 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN TELEVISION BROADCASTING INDUSTRIES(a)(b), By occupation - August 2006
			Number	%
	Free-to-air television broadcasting
		Media producers (excluding video)	1 236	9.8
		Television journalists	928	7.3
		Camera operators (film, TV and radio)	628	5.0
		Film and video editors	592	4.7
		Program directors (TV or radio)	388	3.1
		Production assistants (film, TV, radio or stage)	361	2.9
		Other cultural occupations	3 680	29.1
		Total cultural occupations	7 813	61.8
		Other occupations	4 833	38.2
		Total occupations	12 646	100.0
	Cable and other subscription broadcasting
		Media producers (excluding video)	123	4.2
		Film and video editors	51	1.7
		Broadcast transmitter operators	43	1.5
		Program directors (TV or radio)	38	1.3
		Television journalists	32	1.1
		Directors (film, TV, radio or stage)	31	1.1
		Other cultural occupations	238	8.1
		Total cultural occupations	556	19.0
		Other occupations	2 372	81.0
		Total occupations	2 928	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.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing, 2006.

17.3 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN RADIO BROADCASTING(a)(b), By occupation - August 2006
		Number	%
Cultural occupations
	Radio presenters	974	18.6
	Program directors (TV or radio)	439	8.4
	Radio journalists	365	7.0
	Advertising specialists	81	1.5
	Sound technicians	69	1.3
	Copywriters	58	1.1
	Other cultural occupations	509	9.7
	Total cultural occupations	2 495	47.7
Other occupations		2 731	52.3
Total occupations		5 226	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.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing, 2006.

17.4 Persons involved in broadcasting, By payment status - 12 months ending April 2007
	Television	Radio	Total(a)
NUMBER ('000)
Some paid involvement	43.4	24.8	63.4
Unpaid involvement only	33.6	80.6	101.2
Total(b)	77.0	105.5	162.9
PER CENT (%)
Some paid involvement	56.4	23.5	38.9
Unpaid involvement	43.6	76.4	62.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
(a) Components may not add up to totals as some persons were involved in more than one activity.
(b) Excludes some people whose payment details are not known.
Source: ABS data available on request, Survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities, April 2007.