Payroll job estimates, sourced from Single Touch Payroll (STP) data
In the week ending 15 June 2024, payroll jobs:
Revised payroll jobs estimates to the week ending 15 June 2024 with more complete STP reporting are available in the following Payroll jobs release.
Monthly change periods presented in this release reflect the change between the reference date (which usually aligns with the Labour Force Survey reference weeks) and the four weeks prior to it. Users should note that there are five weeks of data since the reference date of the previous release (week ending 11 May 2024).
In the month to 15 June 2024, payroll jobs increased by 0.1%, compared to an increase of 0.4% in the previous month.
Estimates of change throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded index values. They may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded index values.
All geographical areas in this release represent the residential address of the jobholder.
In the month to 15 June 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Victoria | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Queensland | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.5 |
| South Australia | 0.0 | -0.1 | 2.3 |
| Western Australia | 0.2 | 0.1 | 3.3 |
| Tasmania | -0.4 | 0.0 | 1.8 |
| Northern Territory | 0.5 | 0.9 | 3.2 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.1 |
| Australia | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
This map presents the percentage change in payroll jobs in the month up to 15 June 2024, by the state and territory of the jobholder's residential address.
Updating of jobholder characteristics including sex and age is no longer possible on the current Weekly Payroll Jobs systems and processes. Users are advised that the accuracy of sex indexes in particular will be affected by a growing proportion of 'unknowns'. See Jobholder characteristics in How the data are processed for more information.
As at 15 June 2024, the proportion of jobholders with unknown sex has risen to 9.7%. These jobholders are not evenly distributed, hence this proportion differs across detailed indexes which include sex, and can affect comparisons over time. When persons join the workforce or register with the ATO for the first time, the ABS assigns STP records whose jobholder characteristics cannot be determined to an ‘unknown’ category for the relevant jobholder characteristics including sex (with an unknown sex not to be confused with people choosing to report a sex other than male or female). Indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex are particularly impacted by rising proportions of unknown sex due to the high likelihood of persons in this age group registering with the ATO for the first time. The indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex have been withdrawn since the 11 May 2023 release, and users are advised to consider the declining quality of the indexes of persons aged 20-29 years old by sex.
In the month to 15 June 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Males | -0.1 | -0.4 | -2.4 |
| Females | 0.2 | 0.1 | -0.9 | |
| Age group (years) | 15-19 | 0.9 | -0.8 | -4.6 |
| 20-29 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.4 | |
| 30-39 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 2.2 | |
| 40-49 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 2.3 | |
| 50-59 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.2 | |
| 60-69 | -0.1 | 0.6 | 4.2 | |
| 70 and over | 0.3 | 1.8 | 7.7 | |
| All persons | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
a. Persons with 'unknown' sex and age are only included in the calculation of All persons indexes. For more information, see Inclusion of unknown characteristics in How data are processed.
Time series estimates of payroll jobs by 5 year age groups by sex are presented as index values in Table 8 of the Data downloads.
In the month to 15 June 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -0.3 | -1.1 | -1.4 |
| Mining | 0.1 | 0.0 | 5.3 |
| Manufacturing | -0.1 | -0.5 | 1.8 |
| Electricity, gas, water and waste services | 0.2 | 0.4 | 8.2 |
| Construction | 0.0 | -0.9 | 2.4 |
| Wholesale trade | -0.2 | -0.1 | 1.8 |
| Retail trade | 0.0 | -0.3 | 1.1 |
| Accommodation and food services | -0.4 | -1.3 | -0.7 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | -0.2 | -0.2 | 2.2 |
| Information media and telecommunications | 0.4 | -0.2 | -0.3 |
| Financial and insurance services | -0.1 | -0.4 | 1.9 |
| Rental, hiring and real estate services | -0.1 | -0.1 | 0.9 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 0.0 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Administrative and support services | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.9 |
| Public administration and safety | 0.1 | 0.6 | 5.6 |
| Education and training | 0.7 | 1.4 | 6.7 |
| Health care and social assistance | 0.6 | 1.1 | 8.3 |
| Arts and recreation services | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.9 |
| Other services | 0.1 | -0.6 | 2.7 |
| All industries | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
Time series estimates of payroll jobs by industry subdivision are presented as index values in Table 6 of the Data downloads. For more information on the industry classifications used in this release, see the Glossary.
Time series estimates of payroll jobs by private sector for selected industry divisions are presented as index values in Table 9 of the Data downloads. More information on the sector classification can be found in Updating characteristics variables in How data are processed and the Glossary.
To learn more about the different labour measures available, their purpose and how to use them, see our Industry employment guide.
The ABS advises caution in using the most recent periods in payroll jobs by employment size indexes, which are subject to higher than usual revisions over a longer period - particularly for small employers. These indexes are more heavily influenced by changes in reporting behaviour and reporting obligations than other indexes, affecting the interpretation of underlying change in labour market conditions. To provide more stability at the end point of these series, a month lag in the reference week is in place.
This release presents percentage change between the weeks ending 11 May 2024 and:
In the month to 11 May 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-19 employees | -0.4 | -0.8 | -13.9 |
| 20-199 employees | 0.4 | 0.4 | 8.5 |
| 200 employees and over | 0.4 | 0.7 | 7.8 |
| All businesses | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.7 |
To aid in the interpretability of payroll job estimates, the following data download contains selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics by state and territory.
Records with 'unknown' characteristics have been excluded from the calculation of proportions. For more information on the source, impact and proportion of unknowns, see the Updating characteristic variables and Inclusion of unknown characteristics sections of How data are processed.
Contains selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics.
Employer characteristics, including industry, employment size, and sector, are periodically updated. These updates are referred to as ‘transition points.’ Users should always exercise caution when comparing index levels across transition points. The most recent transition point was the week ending 30 December, 2023. For further details, refer to the Update of employer characteristics section in the Methodology.
Due to the rising proportion of unknown sex, indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex have been withdrawn (since the 11 May 2023 release) and appear as NA (not available) in Tables 4 and 8. Users are advised to consider the decline in accuracy when interpreting the indexes of persons aged 20-29 years old by sex due to the increasing proportion of jobholders with an unknown sex in this age group. For more information see the Sex and age group section.
Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages formed an important part of a suite of additional products the ABS produced to provide valuable insights into the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian society and economy.
Now that Australia has a more stable labour market, Weekly Payroll Jobs will move to a quarterly release schedule. This release (11 July 2024) is the final monthly release, in the near term.
The first quarterly release is scheduled for 24 October 2024, for the week ending 17 August 2024 and will include a name change to Payroll Jobs.
The ABS will extend the time between the reference week and the release date by around 6 weeks to take advantage of more complete STP reporting, reducing the level of imputation in the most recent periods by more than half. This will provide a more definitive picture of change in the labour market from this powerful new data.
The ABS will also be retiring a series of indexes that will benefit from changes to systems, processes and methods (including sex and sector). This will result in changes to the data downloads - names, numbers and formats.
These changes will allow for the redirection of resources toward improved and new labour market products and expanding the use of STP data in ABS labour statistics.
Previously published articles and information of interest are linked below:
This release previously used catalogue number 6160.0.55.001.