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
September 2023
Released
8/12/2023
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023:

  • total jobs increased 0.7% to 16.0 million
  • filled jobs increased 0.8% to 15.5 million
  • secondary jobs increased 1.0% to 1.1 million
  • proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.6%
  • multiple job-holders decreased 0.8% to 955,600
  • hours worked decreased 0.7% to 5.9 billion hours.
Key statistics - Seasonally adjusted
  Sep-23Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs 
 Total jobs15,950,9000.7%2.7%
 Filled jobs15,532,5000.8%3.4%
 Job vacancies418,400-1.6%-15.6%
 Main jobs14,448,7000.8%3.1%
 Secondary jobs1,083,9001.0%7.4%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.6%nana
People 
 Employed people14,435,3000.6%3.1%
 Multiple job-holders955,600-0.8%6.8%
 Multiple job-holding rate6.6%nana
Hours 
 Hours actually worked5,878.6 million-0.7%4.2%
Payments 
 Average income per employed person$23,494.001.8%5.6%
Key statistics - Trend (a)
  Sep-23Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Jobs 
 Total jobs15,949,9000.7%2.8%
 Filled jobs15,530,2000.8%3.2%
 Job vacancies419,700-1.0%-11.2%
 Main jobs14,421,3000.7%2.8%
 Secondary jobs1,109,0002.3%9.7%
 Proportion of vacant jobs2.6%nana
People 
 Employed people14,436,6000.6%2.9%
 Multiple job-holders970,9000.8%6.9%
 Multiple job-holding rate6.7%nana
Hours 
 Hours actually worked5,885.7 million0.3%4.6%
  1. The ABS expects to reinstate trend estimates in the Payments quadrant in mid-2024. For more information, see Data impacts and changes.

Reinstating trend estimates

The ABS has reinstated Labour Account trend estimates for the Jobs, People and Hours quadrants (including for the entire COVID-19 period in spreadsheets) in this issue and reverted to concurrent seasonal adjustment across all series. However, key figures and graphs in the Labour Account release will continue to focus on seasonally adjusted estimates. This will be reviewed for future releases. For more information, see Seasonal adjustment and trend estimates below.

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

Change to the release of annual Labour Account data

Seasonal adjustment and trend estimates

Jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023:

  • filled jobs increased by 0.8%, following a 0.5% rise in the June quarter 2023, and 3.4% through the year
  • the number of main jobs increased by 108,400 (0.8%)
  • the proportion of vacant jobs decreased to 2.6%
  • the number of public sector jobs remained steady, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 0.9%.

Total jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023, the total number of jobs increased by 112,700 (0.7%). This consisted of a decrease of 6,800 job vacancies and an increase of 119,600 filled jobs.

Filled jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023, the number of filled jobs increased by 119,600 to 15.5 million. 

Filled jobs, by industry, September quarter 2023, seasonally adjusted
Filled jobs ('000)Quarterly change (%)Annual change (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)463.4-1.30.7
Mining (B)218.73.710.7
Manufacturing (C)904.40.51.2
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)141.42.48.5
Construction (E)1,195.1-1.9-3.9
Wholesale trade (F)624.9-0.8-1.6
Retail trade (G)1,462.5-0.9-1.2
Accommodation and food services (H)1,204.03.59.0
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)748.44.06.9
Information media and telecommunications (J)228.58.49.8
Financial and insurance services (K)512.5-0.6-0.3
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)332.33.62.3
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,215.0-1.02.7
Administrative and support services (N)991.2-1.3-3.7
Public administration and safety (O)825.4-0.33.2
Education and training (P)1,274.21.79.6
Health care and social assistance (Q)2,324.82.28.2
Arts and recreation services (R)294.95.820.2
Other services (S)570.9-0.60.6
Total all industries15,532.50.83.4

Main and secondary jobs

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023:

  • main jobs increased by 108,400 (0.8%)
  • secondary jobs increased by 11,200 (1.0%)
  • the proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs increased to 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 September quarter 2023:

  • the total number of employed people increased by 0.6% to 14.4 million
  • the number of multiple job-holders decreased by 0.8%
  • unemployed people increased by 9,700 people to 509,800.

The three industries with the highest number of employed people in the September quarter 2023 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade, and Education and training.

Hours

In seasonally adjusted terms for the September quarter 2023, the total number of hours actually worked decreased by 39.6 million hours (0.7%) to 5.9 billion hours.

The three industries with the highest number of hours actually worked in the September 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 September quarter 2023:

  • total labour income increased by $8,048 million (2.4%) to $339,144 million
  • the average labour income per employed person increased by 1.8% to $23,494
  • total compensation of employees increased by 2.4% to $310,218 million
  • labour income from self-employment increased by 3.0% to $28,926 million
  • total labour costs increased by $8,001 million (2.3%) to $360,202 million. 

The three industries with the highest total labour income in the September 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.

Article archive

Previous feature articles

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6150.0.55.003.

Methodology

Labour Account Australia methodology, September 2023

Media releases