Single Touch Payroll (STP)

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) receives payroll information from employers through Single Touch Payroll (STP) enabled payroll and accounting software each time the employer runs its payroll. The ATO provides selected employer and job level data items from the STP system to the ABS for the production of official statistics. STP replaces the need for businesses to provide a payment summary annual report or 'group certificates.'

Estimates based on STP data begin from January 2020 at the earliest. Employers with 20 or more employees (large employers) commenced transition to STP reporting on 1 July 2018. Employers with less than 20 employees (small employers) began transitioning to STP on 1 July 2019. Any reporting concessions that were made available for small employers ended on 30 June 2021. From July 2021, almost all large employers and eligible small employers report through STP.

Other data sources

The STP data are enhanced through combining other administrative data held by the ABS (also sourced from the Australian taxation system).

Industry of activity, state/territory of operations, sector and employment size variables of the employing business are sourced from the ABS Business Register (ABSBR).

Sex, age and residential geography variables are primarily sourced from Client Register data (supplied by ATO to the ABS as part of the transfer of Personal Income Tax data). Sex can only be sourced from Client Register data. When age and residential geography are not available from Client Register data, they are sourced from STP data. The ABS receives annual snapshots of de-identified Client Register data from the ATO, for use in the production of statistics.

Detailed information on the scope and coverage of Labour statistics derived from Single Touch Payroll data can be found in the methodology pages accompanying respective statistical releases: Weekly Payroll Jobs; Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator and Public Sector Employment and Earnings.

The ABS has been using Single Touch Payroll (STP) data from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to produce unique insights into the labour market since April 2020.

STP data are compiled into calendar month reference periods of total wages and salaries paid by employers. Estimates are compiled using STP data received around 6 weeks after the end of the latest reference month and are scoped and weighted to all active employing businesses/organisations in the Australian economy.

The release includes level estimates and percentage change for national, state and territory, Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification (ANZSIC) division and subdivision, employment size and public/private sector, as outlined in Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia.

The estimates are presented as an original series only. Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates are not yet available as a number of years of stable data are required before seasonal patterns can be observed and adjusted for.

To improve the comparability of estimates between calendar months, an adjustment has been applied to account for the differing number of days in each month. The adjustment standardises all months to an average length of days and is known as calendar adjustment. This type of adjustment is usually done as part of seasonal adjustment.

The data underlying these estimates are revised in each release.

From February 2026, a new monthly employee jobs measure will be added to provide insights into jobs growth and its influence on the composition of total wages and salaries.

STP data are compiled annually to measure public sector wages and employee jobs. These are published annually in Public Sector Employment and Earnings (PSEE).

Each release contains cash wages and salaries for the financial year, and employee jobs in the month of June and is scoped and weighted to all active employing public sector organisations in the Australian economy.

Estimates are available by:

• Level of Government (Local, State and Commonwealth)
• National, state and territory
• Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification (ANZSIC) division

The PSEE series commences from the 2021-22 financial year and replaces the annual Survey of Employment and Earnings which covered 2007-08 to 2021-22.

Up until its retirement in July 2025, Payroll Jobs provided indexes of week-to-week changes in jobs, and previously wages paid, from STP data, across all industries.

Payroll jobs, and previously wages, are as reported to the ATO through STP-enabled payroll or accounting software. Payroll Jobs and wages indexes can be used to understand the short term changes in wages paid between January 2020 and June 2023 and in industry employment between January 2020 and March 2025.

Each release contains both indexes and percentage changes which are available for national, state and territory and Australian and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification (ANZSIC) division and subdivision by selected jobholder and employer attributes across the series.

Levels for jobs and wages are not available in this release. The payroll jobs index provides a measure of changes in jobs over time.

The estimates are presented as an original series only and the underlying data were revised in each release.

The issue was originally named Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages and was renamed Weekly Payroll Jobs and then Payroll Jobs across its release history to reflect changes in content and methods.