Labour Account Australia

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The Australian Labour Account provides quarterly and annual time series for four quadrants: Jobs, People, Hours and Payments

Reference period
December 2021
Released
9/03/2022

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021:

  • Total jobs increased 529,900 (3.7%).
  • Filled jobs increased 472,300 (3.4%) to 14.5 million.
  • Multiple job holders increased 13.1%.
  • Secondary jobs increased 98,600 (11.5%).
  • Hours worked increased 4.3%.
  • Employed people increased 3.3% to 13.6 million.
 Seasonally Adjusted

Sep qtr 2021 to Dec qtr 2021
% change

Dec qtr 2020 to Dec qtr 2021
% change

Total Jobs 3.74.0
Filled Jobs3.43.1
Main Jobs2.82.7
Secondary Jobs11.58.4
Job Vacancies16.856.0
Hours Actually Worked4.32.2
Average Hours Actually Worked Per Job0.9-0.8
Average Income Per Employed Person-0.53.0

Data impacts and changes

Understanding differences in hours worked in the Labour Account and the Labour Force Survey

Scope differences between the Labour Account and Labour Force Survey

Labour themes and navigation on the ABS website to change on 25 March 2022

Jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021:

  • Filled jobs increased by 3.4%, following a 2.7% fall in the September quarter 2021. Filled jobs grew 3.1% through the year.
  • The number of main jobs increased by 373,700 (or 2.8%).
  • The number of multiple job holders increased by 13.1%.
  • The proportion of vacant jobs increased to 2.7%, from the 2.4% recorded in the September quarter 2021.
  • The number of public sector jobs increased by 3.7%, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 3.6%.

Total jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021, the total number of jobs increased by 529,900 (or 3.7%), made up of a increase of 57,600 job vacancies and a increase of 472,300 filled jobs.

Filled jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021, the number of filled jobs increased by 472,300 to 14.5 million. 

Filled jobs, by industry, Dec qtr 2021, seasonally adjusted
Filled jobs ('000)Proportion of total (all industries) (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)453.93.1
Mining (B)197.31.4
Manufacturing (C)911.36.3
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)124.70.9
Construction (E)1,167.18.0
Wholesale trade (F)550.23.8
Retail trade (G)1,444.310.0
Accommodation and food services (H)1,177.08.1
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)661.74.6
Information media and telecommunications (J)178.61.2
Financial and insurance services (K)472.33.3
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)290.52.0
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,208.98.3
Administrative and support services (N)1,032.17.1
Public administration and safety (O)763.75.3
Education and training (P)1,040.57.2
Health care and social assistance (Q)2,013.713.9
Arts and recreation services (R)270.21.9
Other services (S)550.93.8
Total all industries14,508.9100.0
Change in filled jobs, by industry, Dec qtr 2021, seasonally adjusted
Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)0.03.7
Mining (B)8.26.5
Manufacturing (C)6.04.9
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)2.91.1
Construction (E)-1.43.1
Wholesale trade (F)0.6-5.5
Retail trade (G)3.43.7
Accommodation and food services (H)16.17.7
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)3.45.6
Information media and telecommunications (J)0.4-4.6
Financial and insurance services (K)0.40.0
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)2.35.6
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)4.43.5
Administrative and support services (N)2.36.8
Public administration and safety (O)0.90.1
Education and training (P)3.1-3.0
Health care and social assistance (Q)-0.11.4
Arts and recreation services (R)10.510.8
Other services (S)7.59.8
Total all industries3.43.1

Secondary jobs

Secondary jobs are where a person is working more than one job at the same time, and may consist of one or more additional jobs. These jobs can be held by people who have their main job in the same or a different industry. 

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021:

  • Secondary jobs increased by 98,600 (or 11.5%). 
  • The proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs was 6.6% compared to 6.1% in the previous quarter.

The three industries with the highest number of secondary jobs were Health care and social assistance, Administrative and support services and Education and training.

Statistical discrepancy - Filled jobs

People

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021:

  • The total number of employed people increased by 3.3% to 13.6 million. 
  • There were 569,100 unemployed people, a decrease of 51,900 people from September quarter 2021.
  • There were 1,024,800 underemployed people, a decrease of 200,000 people from September quarter 2021.

The Labour Account produces the number of people employed from an industry perspective. As a result, the sum of employed people for each industry division does not equal the total number of people employed in the whole economy, given some people are employed in multiple industries.

The three industries with the highest number of employed people in the December quarter 2021 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade and Professional, scientific and technical services.

Hours

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021, the total number of hours actually worked increased by 220.8 million hours (or 4.3%) to 5.4 billion hours.

The three industries with the highest number of hours actually worked in the December quarter 2021 were Health care and social assistance, Construction and Professional, scientific and technical services.

Average hours worked per job is the hours actually worked divided by all filled jobs.

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021, average hours worked per job increased by 0.9% to 370 hours. 

Payments

The Labour Account Payments quadrant presents the costs incurred by enterprises in employing labour, and the income received by people from its provision. Total income consists of compensation of employees and labour income from self-employment. The addition of other related costs to employers to total income will derive total labour costs.

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2021:

  • Total labour income increased by $7,598 million (or 2.7%) to $286,797 million. 
  • The average labour income per employed person decreased by 0.5% to $21,131.
  • Total compensation of employees increased by 2.0% to $257,413 million.
  • Labour income from self-employment increased by 9.4% to $29,384 million.
  • Total labour costs increased by $9,994 million (3.3%) to $308,450 million. 

The three industries with the highest total labour income in the December quarter 2021 were Health care and social assistance, Professional, scientific and technical services and Construction.

Data downloads

Changes to Excel file format

As foreshadowed in the September quarter release, the Labour Account timeseries spreadsheets are now released in .xlsx format. While this change will improve usability, it may also require changes to automated macros or similar programs that call on the previous .xls format. This change does not impact on previously released data.

Time series spreadsheets

Quarterly estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Division and Total All Industries.

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Subdivision, Division and Total All Industries.

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11.30am release on the ABS Website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Labour Account balanced - Balanced annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Industry Subdivision, Division and Total All Industries.

Labour Account unbalanced - Unbalanced annual estimates for Jobs, People, Hours and Payments by Total All Industries.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data explorer user guide.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6150.0.55.003.

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