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EMPLOYMENT

Census of Population and Housing

In 2001, the Census of Population and Housing recorded 11,461 people whose main job was working in the libraries industry - the ABS definition of this industry includes people working for archives organisations but excludes people working for libraries located in educational institutions (e.g. school libraries) and specialist libraries (e.g. those located in government departments and within business organisations). The most common occupations were Library assistants (3,093 people), Librarians (2,974 people) and Library technicians (2,592 people).

10.9 PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE LIBRARIES INDUSTRY(a), By occupation - August 2001
		Number	%
Cultural occupations
	Library assistants	3 093	27.0
	Librarians	2 974	26.0
	Library technicians	2 592	22.6
	Archivists	207	1.8
	Other cultural occupations	215	1.9
	Total cultural occupations	9 081	79.3
Other occupations		2 367	20.7
Total all occupations		11 448	100.0
(a) In their main job in the week before Census Night.
ABS, Employment in Culture, Australia, 2001 (cat. no. 6273.0).

The extent to which library activity is carried out in other industries can be gauged from Table 10.10. While the libraries industry employed 2,974 librarians, post-school education (university and technical education) employed 2,499 librarians, school education employed 627 librarians and government administration employed 1,467 librarians.

The 2001 Census of Population and Housing also counted 800 people whose main job in the week before the Census was as an archivist. This included not only those employed in the national and state archives, but also those working for government organisations, educational institutions, commercial organisations, etc.

Work Survey

The ABS 2004 Survey of Work in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities provides another perspective on employment in libraries and archives.

While not being able to provide information on the occupation of people working in a library or archive, or the industries in which librarians or archivists might work, it does give a better indication of the total number of people working in library or archive organisations by providing information on those working in both a paid and unpaid capacity and those who are involved as part of a second job.

The survey found that there were 87,800 people aged 15 years and over who had some work involvement in a library or archive in the 12 months to April 2004, of whom 33,700 (38%) received some payment.

Public Libraries Survey

The 2003-04 ABS Public Libraries Survey found that at the end of June 2004, there were 10,606 staff employed in local government libraries and 1,865 employed in national and state libraries.

Some 42% of those employed in local government libraries were permanent full-time workers while 76% of those employed in national and state libraries were permanent full-time workers.

This survey also found that at the end of June 2004, there were 811 persons employed by the eight national and state archives in Australia.

10.11 Number of employees in public libraries - June 2004
	Males	Females	Persons
LOCAL GOVERNMENT LIBRARIES
Permanent full-time	793	3 678	4 472
Permanent part-time	300	3 144	3 444
Casuals	360	2 330	2 691
Total employees	1 454	9 152	10 606
NATIONAL AND STATE LIBRARIES
Permanent full-time	480	937	1 417
Permanent part-time	53	242	295
Casuals	60	93	153
Total employees	593	1 272	1 865
ABS, Public Libraries, Australia, 2003-04 (cat. no. 8561.0).

The 2003-04 ABS Public Libraries Survey showed that the number of volunteers working for local government libraries in June 2004 totalled 6,315 people. The number of volunteers working in national and state libraries was 416 and there were 122 volunteers working in national and state archives.