Working from home remains popular but less than in 2021

Working from home is still more common among Australians after the COVID-19 pandemic, but less than it was two years ago, according to new data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said: "Prior to the pandemic, the percentage of employed people working from home regularly had been steadily increasing by around a percentage point every two years. It jumped by around eight percentage points between August 2019 and August 2021, from around 32 to 40 per cent, when the restrictions around the Delta variant were in effect across much of South-East Australia.”

“Our latest data, for August 2023, shows that 37 per cent of Australians work from home regularly. While this was down from around 40 per cent in 2021, it was still five percentage points above the pre-pandemic level, showing that many of the changes in behaviour and working arrangements have continued beyond the pandemic.” 

Working from home continued to be more common in some occupations. Close to two-thirds (60 per cent) of managers and professionals were doing it regularly in August 2023, compared with around one in five (22 per cent) across other occupations.

“Interestingly, while the pandemic has seen a large shift in people working from home, there haven’t been similarly large changes in other arrangements like working flexible hours. Apart from working from home, most other arrangements have generally followed pre-pandemic trends,” Mr Jarvis said.

Further details can be found in Working arrangements available on www.abs.gov.au.

In August 2023, half of all employees earned at least $1,300 a week (median weekly earnings in their main job). This was an extra $52 a week, or 4.2 per cent more, compared with August 2022.

Median weekly earnings in August 2023 were $1,500 for men and $1,150 for women. 

Median weekly full-time earnings were around $1,600 ($1,692 for men and $1,500 for women), while median weekly part-time earnings were $655 ($600 for men and $699 for women).

In the past year, median full-time earnings for men rose by $92 to $1,692 a week (up 5.8 per cent) and by $66 to $1,500 a week for women (up 4.6 per cent).

The occupations with the highest median weekly earnings for full-time workers in August 2023 were:

• Chief Executives, General Managers and Legislators - $2,800.
• Specialist Managers - $2,404.
• ICT Professionals - $2,237.

Occupations with the lowest median weekly earnings for full-time workers in August 2023 were:

• Sales Support Workers - $1,065
• Food Preparation Assistants - $1,100
• Farm, Forestry and Garden Workers - $1,100.

In addition to weekly earnings, the data also showed that median hourly earnings in August 2023 were $39.50, up from $37.00 in August 2022. Men earned $40.50, as a median hourly rate, compared with $38.20 for women.

Further details can be found in Employee earnings available on www.abs.gov.au.

In August 2023, there were 2.7 million casual employees. These workers accounted for around 22.4 per cent of all employees, down from 23.7 per cent in August 2022 and 24.1 per cent in February 2020. This reflects much stronger growth in non-casual employment in recent years, in addition to the more pronounced impacts on casual employment during the pandemic. 

The data also shows that casual employees are, in addition to being more likely to work part-time hours, also more likely to work in lower paid occupations and industries.

“In August 2023, most employees (92 per cent) who earned the median wage or more were entitled to paid sick leave or paid holiday leave. Over 50 per cent of these higher earning employees also had access to paid parental leave,” Mr Jarvis said.

“Of the lowest 25 per cent of earners, 44 per cent had access to paid sick leave or paid holiday leave, and 21 per cent were entitled to paid parental leave.”

Further details can be found in Working arrangements available on www.abs.gov.au.