Weekly Payroll Jobs will transition to a quarterly release frequency following the monthly release in July 2024. See Upcoming changes in this release for more information.
Weekly Payroll Jobs
Latest release
Payroll job estimates, sourced from Single Touch Payroll (STP) data
Reference period
Week ending 11 May 2024
Released
6/06/2024
Key statistics
In the week ending 11 May 2024, payroll jobs:
- increased by 0.1% in the month since 13 April 2024
- increased by 1.2% in the year since 13 May 2023
Factors affecting interpretation
Revisions
Change periods
National
In the month to 11 May 2024, payroll jobs increased by 0.1%, compared to a decrease of 1.0% in the previous month.
- Indexed to the week ending 14 March 2020 (week 10 in 2020).
- Week 0 represents the weeks ending 4 January 2020, 2 January 2021, 1 January 2022, 31 December 2022 and 30 December 2023. Week 19 represents the weeks ending 16 May 2020, 15 May 2021, 14 May 2022, 13 May 2023 and 11 May 2024.
- Around the change in financial years estimates see a greater variation in business payroll reporting. For more information, see the Data variability and revisions section.
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.
State and territory
All geographical areas in this release represent the residential address of the jobholder.
In the month to 11 May 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
- Northern Territory and Victoria, up 0.5%
- Queensland, up 0.3%
- New South Wales, down 0.3%
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 0.1 | -0.3 | 0.7 |
| Victoria | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| Queensland | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
| South Australia | 0.1 | -0.1 | 2.5 |
| Western Australia | 0.0 | 0.1 | 2.5 |
| Tasmania | 0.2 | -0.2 | 1.4 |
| Northern Territory | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.9 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| Australia | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
Monthly percentage change in payroll jobs, by state and territory
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This map presents the percentage change in payroll jobs in the month up to 11 May 2024, by the state and territory of the jobholder's residential address.
Sex and age group
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 11 May 2024, the proportion of jobholders with unknown sex has risen to 9.4%. 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 11 May 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
- worked by persons aged 70 and over, up 0.9%
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Males | -0.1 | -0.4 | -2.9 |
| Females | 0.2 | 0.4 | -1.1 | |
| Age group (years) | 15-19 | -0.6 | 0.0 | -5.0 |
| 20-29 | 0.0 | -0.1 | 1.1 | |
| 30-39 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.9 | |
| 40-49 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.8 | |
| 50-59 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.7 | |
| 60-69 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 3.6 | |
| 70 and over | 0.8 | 0.9 | 5.6 | |
| All persons | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
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.
5 year age groups
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.
Industry
In the month to 11 May 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing, down 3.7%
- Education and training, up 3.4%
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -1.9 | -3.7 | -2.7 |
| Mining | -0.2 | -0.3 | 5.5 |
| Manufacturing | 0.0 | -0.5 | 1.7 |
| Electricity, gas, water and waste services | 0.0 | 0.0 | 8.9 |
| Construction | 0.0 | -0.6 | 1.3 |
| Wholesale trade | 0.0 | 0.1 | 2.6 |
| Retail trade | -0.5 | -0.3 | 1.7 |
| Accommodation and food services | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | 0.0 | -0.1 | 1.5 |
| Information media and telecommunications | -0.5 | -0.8 | -1.3 |
| Financial and insurance services | 0.0 | -0.1 | 2.6 |
| Rental, hiring and real estate services | -0.1 | -0.1 | 1.0 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Administrative and support services | -0.1 | -1.4 | 1.3 |
| Public administration and safety | 0.2 | 0.2 | 5.3 |
| Education and training | 1.5 | 3.4 | 4.9 |
| Health care and social assistance | 0.1 | 0.2 | 8.0 |
| Arts and recreation services | -1.0 | -0.6 | 2.4 |
| Other services | -0.1 | 0.0 | 1.4 |
| All industries | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
- Some industries experience pronounced seasonality in payroll jobs. For more information, see Seasonality in Data variability and revisions.
- Jobs with 'unknown' industry are only included in the calculation of all industry indexes. For more information, see Inclusion of unknown characteristics in How data are processed.
- Industries ranked by percentage change in the latest month.
Industry subdivision
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.
Private sector industry
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.
Industry employment guide
To learn more about the different labour measures available, their purpose and how to use them, see our Industry employment guide.
Employment size
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 13 April 2024 and:
- 30 March 2024, for fortnight
- 16 March 2024, for month
- 15 April 2023, for year
In the month to 13 April 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:
- 0-19 employees, down 2.3%
| Fortnight (%) | Month (%) | Year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-19 employees | -1.3 | -2.3 | -13.7 |
| 20-199 employees | -0.2 | -1.2 | 9.1 |
| 200 employees and over | -0.1 | -0.3 | 8.7 |
| All businesses | -0.4 | -1.0 | 2.4 |
- Records with 'unknown' employment size are only included in the calculation of All businesses indexes. For more information, see Revisions in sub-populations in Data variability and revisions.
- The monthly and annual changes should be used with caution given they cross the 'transition point' of the update to employer characteristics. For more information, see the Update of employer characteristics section of the Methodology.
Distribution of characteristics
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.
Table 20: Payroll jobs - characteristics distributions
Contains selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics.
Data files
Data downloads
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.
Table 4: Payroll jobs indexes
Data files
Table 6: Industry subdivision - Payroll jobs indexes
Data files
Table 7: Employer characteristics - Payroll jobs index
Data files
Table 8: Jobholder characteristics - Payroll jobs index
Data files
Table 9: Sector - Payroll jobs index
Data files
All data cubes
Data files
Upcoming changes
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 with a final monthly release on 11 July 2024. In addition, the ABS will extend the time between the final payroll period and the release date to take advantage of more complete STP reporting. This will provide a more definitive picture of change in the labour market from this powerful new data.
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.
Further information on these changes, including the date of the first quarterly release, will be provided in the 11 July 2024 release.
Previous articles
Previously published articles and information of interest are linked below:
- Characteristics spotlight: 2022 (August 2022)
- Characteristics spotlight: 2021 (May 2021)
- Seasonality spotlight: 2022 to 2023 year end (April 2023)
- Seasonality spotlight: 2021 to 2022 year end (February 2022)
- Seasonality spotlight: 2020 to 2021 year end (February 2021)
- A year of COVID-19 through payroll jobs and wages statistics (March 2021)
- Regional spotlight: New South Wales and Queensland (April 2022)
Previous catalogue number
This release previously used catalogue number 6160.0.55.001.