Cash wages and salaries estimates relate to the entire financial year, while employee job estimates reflect the number of jobs in June of the corresponding year. As these measures are based on different reference periods, the ABS does not recommend using these components to calculate average cash wages and salaries per employee job.
Public sector employment and earnings
Estimates of public sector employee jobs and cash wages and salaries by level of government, state and industry
Key statistics
- There were 2,657,400 public sector employee jobs in the month of June 2026, an increase of 60,300 (2.3%) from June 2025.
- In 2025-26, total public sector cash wages and salaries increased $16.5b (6.6%) to $266.1 billion.
Level of government
Growth in public sector employee jobs and cash wages and salaries in 2025–26 was driven primarily by the state and territory level of government, accounting for 91.6% of the annual increase in employee jobs and 76.2% of the annual increase in cash wages and salaries across the public sector.
In June 2026, employee jobs increased across all levels of government:
- Commonwealth government increased by 3,700 jobs (1.0%)
- State and territory government increased by 55,200 jobs (2.8%)
- Local government increased increased by 1,400 jobs (0.6%).
In 2025-26, cash wages and salaries increased across all levels of government:
- Commonwealth government increased by $2,944.7m (7.2%)
- State and territory government increased by $12,612.1m (6.6%)
- Local government increased by $986.5m (5.6%).
State and territory
State and territory - Commonwealth government
State and territory - State government
State and territory - Local government
Industry
Public sector employee jobs and cash wages and salaries are primarily represented by three industries. Public administration and safety, Education and training, and Health care and social assistance represented 89% of all employee jobs and 87% of cash wages and salaries in 2025-26.
In June 2026, the largest contributors to the increase in employee jobs were recorded in:
- Health care and social assistance, with an increase of 29,700 jobs (4.4%)
- Education and training, with an increase of 17,400 jobs (2.3%)
- Public administration and safety, with an increase of 4,600 jobs (0.5%).
- Industries are ranked by descending employee jobs level in June 2026.
- Includes Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Mining, Manufacturing, Wholesale trade, Retail trade, Accommodation and food services, Administrative and support services and Other services.
In 2025-26, the largest contributors to the increase in cash wages and salaries growth were recorded in:
- Public administration and safety, with an increase of $5,621.7m (6.2%)
- Health care and social assistance, with an increase of $5,547.4m (8.5%)
- Education and training increased, with an increase of $3,220.9m (5.2%).
- Industries are ranked by descending cash wages and salaries for 2025-26 financial year.
- Includes Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Mining, Manufacturing, Wholesale trade, Retail trade, Accommodation and food services, Administrative and support services and Other services.
Data downloads
Public sector, employee jobs and cash wages and salaries
Level of government, state and territory
Industry
Methodology
Scope
This release presents estimates of Public sector employee jobs and cash wages and salaries by state/territory, level of government and industry.
Geography
Data is available for:
- Australia total (industry and level of government)
- States and territories (level of government)
Source
Australian Tax Office (ATO) Single Touch Payroll (STP) administrative data combined with ABS Business Register data.
Collection method
The ATO provides selected employer and employee level data from the STP system to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). These data are combined with employer population and characteristics data from snapshots of the ABS Business Register.
Concepts, sources and methods
Refer to the glossary for definitions of cash wages and salaries and employee jobs.
History of changes
This STP data-based release replaced the Survey of Employment and Earnings (SEE) in 2022-23, which was previously directly collected from businesses/organisations via a sample survey.