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

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Reference period
December 2023
Released
8/03/2024
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023:

  • total jobs increased 0.2% to 16.0 million
  • filled jobs increased 0.4% to 15.6 million
  • secondary jobs increased 1.3% to 1.1 million
  • proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.4%
  • multiple job-holders increased 1.4% to 970,700
  • hours worked decreased 0.3% to 5.9 billion hours.
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
  Dec-23Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs    
 Total jobs16,019,3000.2%2.4%
 Filled jobs15,631,5000.4%2.8%
 Job vacancies387,900-5.6%-13.4%
 Main jobs14,529,8000.3%2.5%
 Secondary jobs1,101,7001.3%6.8%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.4%nana
People    
 Employed people14,532,5000.5%2.5%
 Multiple job-holders970,7001.4%3.7%
 Multiple job-holding rate6.7%nana
Hours    
 Hours actually worked5,863.3 million-0.3%2.0%
Payments    
 Average income per employed person$23,629.200.9%4.2%
Key statistics - Trend (a)
  Dec-23Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs    
 Total jobs16,113,2000.7%2.9%
 Filled jobs15,719,1000.8%3.4%
 Job vacancies394,000-3.3%-14.3%
 Main jobs14,614,2000.8%3.2%
 Secondary jobs1,104,9000.8%6.5%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.4%nana
People    
 Employed people14,532,4000.5%2.6%
 Multiple job-holders971,9000.2%3.9%
 Multiple job-holding rate6.7%nana
Hours    
 Hours actually worked5,880.7 million0.0%2.2%
  1. The ABS expects to reinstate trend estimates in the Payments quadrant in mid-2024. For more information, see Data impacts and changes.

Labour Force statistics estimation improvements

As part of ongoing improvements to the estimation method for Labour Force statistics, which are a key input into the Labour Account, the ABS will make some minor changes in how it accounts for some relatively small population groups within the Labour Force Survey sample.

The ABS will introduce the new method with the February 2024 Labour Force release (and quarterly population rebenchmarking revisions) on 21 March 2024. Further information on this estimation improvements can be found in Improvements to Labour Force estimation method. Revisions from this change will be reflected in corresponding time series revisions to the Labour Account in the next release, for March quarter 2024, on 7 June 2024.

Guide to labour statistics

To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our Guide to labour statistics. It provides summary information on labour market topics including Industry employment data.

Data impacts and changes

Revisions this quarter

Seasonal adjustment and trend estimates

Jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023:

  • filled jobs increased by 0.4%, following a 0.9% rise in the September quarter 2023, and 2.8% through the year
  • the number of main jobs increased by 42,500 (0.3%)
  • the proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.4%
  • the number of public sector jobs increased by 1.3%, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 0.3%.

Total jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023, the total number of jobs increased by 34,200 (0.2%). This consisted of a decrease of 22,800 job vacancies and an increase of 57,000 filled jobs.

Filled jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023, the number of filled jobs increased by 57,000 to 15.6 million.

Filled jobs, by industry, December quarter 2023, seasonally adjusted
Filled jobs ('000)Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)461.1-0.5-0.2
Mining (B)221.01.08.8
Manufacturing (C)904.0-0.2-1.7
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)141.80.26.1
Construction (E)1,229.82.60.0
Wholesale trade (F)623.9-0.1-3.7
Retail trade (G)1,460.3-0.5-1.3
Accommodation and food services (H)1,118.2-7.6-2.9
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)753.50.65.2
Information media and telecommunications (J)209.3-8.3-1.1
Financial and insurance services (K)518.70.9-1.1
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)320.6-3.83.0
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,271.14.42.7
Administrative and support services (N)1,038.93.72.5
Public administration and safety (O)839.01.34.2
Education and training (P)1,271.1-0.27.7
Health care and social assistance (Q)2,369.31.79.2
Arts and recreation services (R)297.50.920.8
Other services (S)582.21.73.7
Total all industries15,631.50.42.8

Main and secondary jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023:

  • main jobs increased by 42,500 (0.3%)
  • secondary jobs increased by 14,500 (1.3%)
  • the proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs remained at 7.0%.

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

Secondary jobs can be held by people who have their main job in the same or a different industry. 

Statistical discrepancy - Filled jobs

People

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023:

  • the total number of employed people increased by 0.5% to 14.5 million
  • the number of multiple job-holders increased by 1.4%
  • unemployed people increased by 68,600 people to 578,000.

The three industries with the highest number of employed people in the December quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade, and Professional, scientific and technical services.

Hours

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December quarter 2023, the total number of hours actually worked decreased by 15.9 million hours (0.3%) to 5.9 billion hours.

The three industries with the highest number of hours actually worked in the December quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Construction, and Professional, scientific and technical services.

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 2023:

  • total labour income increased by $4,844 million (1.4%) to $343,390 million
  • the average labour income per employed person increased by 0.9% to $23,629
  • total compensation of employees increased by 1.7% to $315,575 million
  • labour income from self-employment decreased by 1.2% to $27,815 million
  • total labour costs increased by $5,045 million (1.4%) to $364,575 million. 

The three industries with the highest total labour income in the December quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Professional, scientific and technical services, and Construction.

Data downloads

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Time series spreadsheets

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

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

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

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

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

Seasonal adjustment for leap years

The extra leap year day in 2024 is unlikely to impact seasonally adjusted statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the month of February 2024 and the March quarter 2024.  This is because the effect of an additional leap year day is analysed and accounted for as part of the seasonal adjustment process, which includes the impact of trading days. The impact of the extra leap year day will be evident in the original (non-seasonally adjusted) series. For more information please refer to this note.

Article archive

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6150.0.55.003.

Methodology

Labour Account Australia methodology, December 2023

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