Jobs

A ‘job’ is a set of tasks designed to be performed by one person for an employer in return for pay or profit. This includes jobs undertaken as an employee (employee jobs), or via self-employment (self-employed jobs).

A job reflects a relationship between an employed person and an employing business (that is, the relationship between an employee and an employer), or between a self-employed person and their own (incorporated or unincorporated) business. Thus, there are 'employee jobs' and 'self-employment jobs', and together these comprise ‘filled jobs’.

Jobs can also exist in the absence of an employed person, i.e. a 'vacant job'. In ABS statistics, ‘vacant jobs’ are positions which are available for immediate filling and for which recruitment action has been undertaken. For more information on vacant jobs, see the Job Vacancies section. The total number of jobs in the economy comprises 'filled jobs' plus 'vacant jobs'.

The ABS produces estimates of jobs from business surveys, administrative data (e.g. Single Touch Payroll) and the Labour Account. The Labour Account also includes employment estimates based on the Labour Force Survey.

Payment

Most jobs are performed by employed persons in return for some form of payment, whether it is in cash or in kind. People paid solely in kind, such as contributing family workers, are considered to have a job.

Not all jobs are paid, however, either in cash or in kind. People can be engaged in productive economic activity within an institutional unit for no apparent reward, in which case they are contributing to output but receiving no compensation. The 2008 SNA concept of a job includes these people as volunteer labour; however, they are excluded from the Australian System of National Accounts and also from ABS labour statistics (see the Institutional Units and the Economically Active Population chapter).

Multiple jobs

A person can hold more than one job at the same time (a multiple job-holder). Where a person is an employee of multiple different employers, each employment relationship is considered a separate job. Self-employed people would generally be considered to have only one job, although it is possible for a self-employed person to be considered a multiple job-holder. Self-employed people can hold additional jobs e.g. where they own and operate multiple distinct businesses (multiple self-employment jobs) or whey they have another job as an employee of another business in addition to their self-employment job. Where a self-employed person has one business with multiple clients, this is considered a single job.

It is important to distinguish between measures (and estimates) of employment (employed people) and measures of jobs. Employment is a 'supply-side' (person) measure reflecting people who have a job, while jobs is a 'demand-side' (business) measure reflecting the jobs that exist in the economy that are either filled or unfilled.

Employment is typically collected in person-based household surveys, while jobs measures are typically collected or sourced from business-based sources (business surveys, payroll-based administrative data such as Single Touch Payroll data, and accounts).

Estimates of jobs are typically measures of employee jobs. The employer is generally unable to provide information about their employees’ other jobs. Because ABS business surveys sample businesses and not employees, multiple job holders may be included in the sample multiple times.

Every employed person has a job, however as noted above some people can have multiple jobs.

Changes in the level of employment from month to month are sometimes referred to as an increase or decrease in the number of jobs (e.g. jobs created or lost). This is an incorrect inference, as estimates of employment from the LFS refer to counts of people rather than counts of jobs.

People holding jobs with different employers would be counted in ABS household surveys as employed once, but in ABS business surveys, each job held would be counted in measures of employee jobs.

The distinction between jobs and employment is also important when considering full-time/part-time status. As full-time/part-time status relates to a person's employment (based on the total hours they work in all of their jobs), the number of full-time employed people (and changes in that number) does not equate to the number of full-time jobs in the labour market. A person in full-time employment can hold more than one job (for example, two part-time jobs for which the combined number of hours worked totals 35 hours or more per week), whereas a full-time job represents one person employed full-time.

There are conceptual reasons, as well as methodological reasons, for differences in estimates of employment produced from household surveys and estimates of jobs produced from administrative data and business surveys.

Estimates of jobs-related measures are produced from ABS business surveys, administrative data and from the Labour Account.

Many of these data sources include industry estimates. Use our Industry employment guide to learn more about the different measures and how to use them.

ABS business surveys generally measure employee jobs, although some industry and economy-wide ABS business surveys include a component of self-employment jobs.

Estimates of employee jobs exclude:

• jobs involving paid employment that do not appear on business payrolls (from which information on employment is sourced within businesses), such as jobs that are paid in kind only (as these jobs won't be included on payrolls), and jobs from which occupants are absent without pay (for a lengthy period); and
• jobs involving paid employment in businesses that have limited coverage on the ABS Business Register (from which the samples for most ABS business surveys are drawn), such as private households engaging staff.

Employee Earnings and Hours

The two-yearly Employee Earnings and Hours Survey is a business survey producing estimates on the composition and distribution of earnings and hours paid for, of employee jobs, as well as information on how employees' pay is set - by award only, collective agreement or individual arrangement. It provides estimates of employee jobs.

Other business surveys

The Economic Activity Survey (EAS) (predominantly Private Sector), mainly released in Australian Industry, produces estimates of jobs which includes working proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses (akin to filled jobs).

Administrative data collections derive estimates of employee jobs from the presence of STP pay events related to wages and salaries or salary sacrifice in the reference period of interest and for the collections scope.

Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator

The Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator (MEEI), released quarterly, presents monthly estimates of employee jobs and wages and salaries. MEEI is compiled using Single Touch Payroll (STP) data from the Australian Taxation Office.

Linked Employer-Employee Dataset

Estimates of (filled) jobs are available from the Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (published in Jobs in Australia). The Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (LEED) is compiled from administrative data using a census of tax records. Data on jobs from the LEED is published in Jobs in Australia (JIA). JIA provides statistics on jobs and job holders (employed persons) who are employees (including owner managers of incorporated enterprises – OMIEs) and owner managers of unincorporated enterprises (OMUEs).

In the LEED, a job is identified as a person’s work or business activity that creates an income, reported in a Pay as You Go payment summary (PAYG) or an Individual Tax Return (ITR) submitted to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Data on most employee jobs is sourced from the payment summary data, while the ITR is used to inform on jobs outside of the PAYG system, including those held by OMUEs.

Measures of jobs from this source differ from other estimates in several key ways. The reference period covers a 12 month period. As a result, a person may have several jobs through that year, either concurrently or consecutively with one or multiple employers and thus statistics differ from point-in-time estimates of filled jobs. Similarly, OMUE jobs are identified in the ITR as an aggregate for a whole reference year. While a person may own and manage more than one enterprise, only one self-employment job can be identified (although an OMUE can also hold other jobs as an employee).

Public Sector Employment and Earnings

Public Sector Employment and Earnings is an administrative data collection producing annual estimates of employee jobs in the public sector. Public Sector Employment and Earnings is compiled using Single Touch Payroll (STP) data from the Australian Taxation Office, based on the presence of STP pay events related to wages and salaries or salary sacrifice (published in Public Sector Employment and Earnings).

Weekly Payroll Jobs

Weekly Payroll Jobs, which ceased after the 24 July 2025 release, was compiled using Single Touch Payroll (STP) data from the Australian Taxation Office. Weekly Payroll Jobs provided indexes of the change in the number of jobs reported through STP for several years, including across the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Estimates of employed people (from the Labour Force Survey), as well as total jobs and filled jobs, are available from the Labour Account.

The Australian Labour Account is the main ABS source of information on jobs. It includes jobs as one of its four quadrants of labour, along with persons, volume (hours), and payments, and sources data on jobs from a number of ABS household and business surveys.

The Australian Labour Account defines jobs as a set of production related tasks that can be assigned to and undertaken by a person, and for which they are usually, but not necessarily, remunerated either in money or in kind.

The Australian Labour Account includes all jobs created and maintained by institutional units resident in Australian economic territory, involving economic activity within the Australian application of the 2008 SNA production boundary. It includes both filled and vacant jobs, and distinguishes between main and secondary jobs. It classifies jobs according to the status in employment categories of the person filling the job, as well as a variety of job characteristics.