New insights into labour market disruption and recovery during 2021-22

Detailed data on jobs and income for nearly 2,500 regions across Australia and over 500 industries in 2021-22 was released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said, "The two reports released today, Jobs in Australia and Personal Income in Australia, use tax data to produce detailed geographical insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped labour markets and communities, and their industries. 

"This rich data offers new in-depth information for communities, adding to a series of annual snapshots, and contains more granular labour market information than is possible from other data. 

“For 2021-22, this data provides new insights into the impact of COVID-19-related disruptions, and how they changed from 2020-21 across different regions, industries, businesses, and groups of workers. 

“As lockdowns lifted earlier in 2021-22 and restrictions eased, labour market activity rebounded. As a result, there were 22.7 million jobs worked at some point during 2021-22, up more than 1.9 million jobs from 2020-21.

Regions with the most pandemic-related impacts (from lockdowns, business trading restrictions, etc.) saw the greatest changes in the total number of jobs worked, particularly in the capital cities.

In 2021-22, the 10 Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) regions with the greatest percentage change in jobs were all in and around the capital cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.  

Around a quarter (26 per cent) of the SA4 regions in Australia saw an increase in jobs worked of 10 per cent or more, above the 9.1 per cent national increase. A similar pattern was also seen across the SA3 regions, SA2 regions, and local government areas.

Jobs in Australia presents data on all the jobs that Australians worked within a year, not just at a single point in the year, including insights into the length of job spells people worked through the year. 

“The labour market impacts and recovery are seen in how long people worked in jobs during 2021-22, with a notable rise in shorter job spells” Mr Jarvis said. 

The number of people who worked for most or all of the year (40 or more weeks) grew by a more typical 3.1 per cent. In contrast, shorter job durations, of 1-13 weeks, 14-26 weeks, and 27-39 weeks, were all more than 20 per cent higher than in 2020-21.

“In 2021-22, we saw the highest share of shorter job spells that we’ve ever seen in this data. 

"13.4 per cent of jobs were worked for 1-13 weeks, around 1 per cent higher than before the pandemic. 

"The same was true for jobs worked 14-26 weeks, which went up to 12 per cent from around 10 per cent. Jobs lasting 27-39 weeks were also more common, rising 1 to 2 per cent compared to prior years,” Mr Jarvis said. 

The latest data also highlights employment-related and total income across Australia and its regions.

Across Australia, median employee income was $58,260 (up 3.1%), and median total income was $55,062 (up 4.0 per cent) in 2021-22. 

Median employee income across SA3 regions was highest in South Canberra ($90,675), West Pilbara ($89,891), Leichhardt ($89,291), North Sydney – Mosman ($88,155), and East Pilbara ($84,672) in 2021-22. These regions also had the highest median total incomes in 2021-22. 

In 2021-22 the total number of jobs worked by migrants increased from 5.5 million to 6.2 million (up 13.2 per cent) compared with the previous year, as COVID-19-related border restrictions eased and migrant numbers increased.

The number of temporary migrants earning employee income recovered to pre-pandemic levels, as restrictions eased during the year. However, the extent of recovery was mixed for types of visas. 

Median employee income for temporary visa holders rose from $42,675 in 2020-21 to $45,394 in 2021-22. 

Health care and social assistance continued to be the industry with the highest share of jobs held by migrants at 15 per cent. The total number of this industry’s jobs worked by migrants also went up by 19 per cent to around 937,000. 

The Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry was the only industry to see a fall in jobs held by migrants for the second year in a row, largely due to a drop in jobs held by temporary visa holders. 

Working Holiday Makers held around 11,000 jobs in the Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry in 2021-22, down from more than 70,000 jobs in the years immediately before the pandemic.