Jobs in Australia

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Information about the number and nature of filled jobs and the people who hold them

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Reference period
2021-22 financial year

Key statistics

During 2021-22:

  • There were 22.7 million jobs, up 9.1% on 2020-21
  • The LGA with the highest number of jobs was Brisbane, with 1,201,000 jobs
  • 6.2 million jobs were held by migrants (who have arrived in Australia since 2000)

Jobs in Australia (JIA), along with Personal Income in Australia (PIA), is one of two releases containing data from the Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (LEED). The Jobs and Income of Employed Persons, 2021-22 TableBuilder product contains more detailed data from the LEED.

Revisions

Data from 2017-18 to 2019-20 has been reprocessed which has resulted in minor revisions to previous years.

Guide to labour statistics

To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our Guide to labour statistics. It provides summary information on labour market topics including Industry employment data.

Jobs, employed persons and income, 2021-22
 NumberChange in last yearChange since 2017-18
Jobs22,715,3009.1%16.1%
 Held by men11,448,0007.6%12.6%
 Held by women11,252,50010.7%19.8%
Employed persons14,922,9003.9%8.2%
Median employee income per job (duration adjusted) (a)$47,7800.0%6.7%
Total employment income$1,051 Billion7.8%24.8%

Note: A person can hold several jobs during the year, either concurrently (as a multiple job-holder) or consecutively. The strong growth in jobs this year was influenced by a higher turnover of jobs than usual due to the continuation and end of COVID related lockdowns. See methodology section for further information on how jobs are calculated in Jobs in Australia. 

  1. 'Duration adjusted' is an analytical measure of employee income per job that seeks to put all jobs onto a comparable full-year duration basis.
  1. Owner-managers of unincorporated enterprises.

Jobs

During 2021-22 there were 22.7 million jobs:

  • 20.5 million (90.0%) jobs were worked by employees (including owner managers of incorporated enterprises) and 2.3 million (10.0%) jobs were worked by owner managers of unincorporated enterprises
  • 17.6 million (77.4%) were private sector jobs and 3.6 million (16.0%) were public sector jobs. Some job records had missing or unknown sector information and therefore these percentages do not add to 100.

Employed people

During 2021-22:

  • There were 14.9 million employed people, up 3.9% on 2020-21
  • The cohort of people aged 25-29 years had the highest number of jobs (2.9 million)

Employee income

In 2021-22, after adjusting for the duration of the job to put all jobs onto a comparable full-year duration basis, the median annual employee income per job was:

  • $47,780 for all people
  • $58,345 for males
  • $38,874 for females
  1. Employee income data are 'duration adjusted' - an analytical measure of employee income per job that seeks to put all jobs onto a comparable full-year duration basis.

Industry

During 2021-22, the industries with the largest share of jobs were:

  • Health care and social assistance (12.9%)
  • Administrative and support services (9.4%)
  • Retail trade (9.2%)
  1. Some jobs records had missing or unknown industry information and therefore these percentages do not add to 100

To learn more about the various ABS sources of industry data, see our Industry employment guide.

Occupation

During 2021-22, the most common occupations were:

  • Professionals (19.5%)
  • Managers (11.1%)
  • Clerical and administrative workers (10.8%)

For men, the most common occupation was Technicians and trades workers, while for women it was Professionals.

Business size

During 2021-22:

  • 6.5 million jobs (28.7%) were worked in small businesses (less than 20 employees)
  • 5.0 million jobs (21.8%) were worked in medium businesses (between 20 and 199 employees)
  • 9.7 million jobs (42.8%) were worked in large businesses (200 or more employees)

Some jobs records had missing or unknown business size information and therefore these percentages do not add to 100.

State and territory

During 2021-22, the number of jobs was largest in:

  • New South Wales (7.0 million jobs)
  • Victoria (5.8 million jobs)
  • Queensland (4.7 million jobs)
  1. Refers to the state or territory of usual residence of the job-holder

Regions

In 2021-22, the local government areas (LGAs) with the highest number of jobs in each state and territory were:

  • New South Wales: Blacktown (356,000 jobs)
  • Victoria: Casey (332,000 jobs)
  • Queensland: Brisbane (1,201,000 jobs)
  • South Australia: Onkaparinga (141,000 jobs)
  • Western Australia: Stirling (229,000 jobs)
  • Tasmania: Launceston (61,000 jobs)
  • Northern Territory: Darwin (97,000 jobs)

The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments. Data is available for SA3s and SA2s in the Data Downloads. 

  1. Refers to the Local Government Area of usual residence of the job-holder. Excludes Local Government Areas with less than 1,000 job-holders.
  2. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments. 

In 2021-22, the LGAs with the highest median employee income per job in each state and territory were:

  • New South Wales: North Sydney ($78,554)
  • Victoria: Yarra ($62,496)
  • Queensland: Weipa ($75,503)
  • South Australia: Roxby Downs ($85,410)
  • Western Australia: Ashburton ($75,987) 
  • Tasmania: Clarence ($46,553)
  • Northern Territory: Darwin Waterfront Precinct ($90,736)
  1. Refers to the Local Government Area of usual residence of the job-holder. Excludes Local Government Areas with less than 1,000 job-holders.
  2. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments. 

Employed migrants

In this release, 'migrants' refers to people who have arrived in Australia since January 2000, and includes permanent migrants who have become Australian citizens during this period. 

During 2021-22:

  • 6.2 million jobs were held by migrants.
  • 3.8 million (61.1%) jobs were held by permanent migrants, 2.4 million (37.8%) by temporary visa holders and 67,100 (1.1%) by migrants who had gained Australian citizenship.
  • 5.1 million (82.2%) were private sector jobs and 684,700 (11%) were public sector jobs.
  • 1.7 million migrant jobs (28.0%) were with small businesses (less than 20 employees).
  • 1.4 million migrant jobs (22.9%) were with medium businesses (between 20 and 199 employees).
  • 2.6 million migrant jobs (42.3%) were with large businesses (200 or more employees).

Some job records had missing or unknown sector or employer size information and therefore these percentages do not add to 100.

Jobs held by migrants
 Number
Jobs6,235,600
 Held by men3,207,700
 Held by women3,027,600
By sector 
 Private sector5,125,000
 Public sector684,700
By employer size 
 1-19 employees1,744,900
 20-199 employees1,426,900
 200 or more employees2,638,000

 

Between 2020-21 and 2021-22, the number of jobs held by migrants:

  • increased from 5.5 million to 6.2 million jobs (up 13.2%)
  • increased across all permanent migrant visa groups, particularly for permanent skilled migrants with an increase of 277,100 jobs (up 14.2%)
  • increased for temporary visa holders by 206,200 jobs (up 9.6%), noting that there was also a large decrease in jobs held by working holiday makers which fell by 79,000 jobs (down 49.8%).
Migrant jobs by visa group for 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2021-22
 2018-192020-212021-22
Permanent visas   
          Permanent skilled1,712,700 1,948,3002,225,400
          Family784,400 929,3001,099,900
          Humanitarian179,100 212,100267,400
          Permanent other218,900 214,900219,500
Total permanent 2,895,000 3,304,4003,812,100
Temporary visas   
          Temporary skilled111,000 95,60090,200
          Student476,100 521,600489,300
          Working holiday maker377,900 158,60079,500
          Temporary other50,200 66,700111,100
          Bridging visas238,700 416,200631,900
          Provisional152,500 182,700190,200
          NZ citizen (subclass 444)699,000 708,800764,200
Total temporary 2,105,400 2,150,2002,356,400
          Australian citizen46,500 55,30067,100
Total5,046,900 5,509,9006,235,600

Data for 2018-19 is presented for comparison. 

During 2021-22, the jobs held by migrants were most commonly in the following industries:

  • Health Care and Social Assistance (15.0% of migrants or 936,700 people)
  • Administrative and Support Services (13.5% of migrants or 843,100 people)
  • Accommodation and Food Services (10.8% of migrants or 671,600 people).

The Administrative and support services industry includes Labour supply services.

a. Some job records had missing or unknown industry information and therefore these percentages do not add to 100

Data downloads

Table 1. Jobs and employment income by sex, age, employer characteristics and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 2. Employee jobs and employee income by sex, age, employer characteristics and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 3. Employee jobs and income, by industry and geography, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 4. Multiple jobs holders and employment income, by sex, age, concurrent job characteristics and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 5. Owner managers of unincorporated enterprises and income, by sex, age, business characteristics and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 6. Employed persons and employment income by sex, age, occupation, job holding characteristics and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 7. New South Wales spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

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Table 8. Victoria spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 9. Queensland spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 10. South Australia spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 11. Western Australia spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 12. Tasmania spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 13. Northern Territory spotlights by local government areas, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 14. Australian Capital Territory spotlight, 2021-22

Data files
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Table 15. Summary statistics for all jobs, employee jobs and employed persons, 2011-12 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 16. Migrants, jobs and employment income by arrival group, sex and age, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 17. Migrants, jobs and employment income by sex, state and territory, industry, and visa group, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 18. Migrants, jobs and employment income by arrival group, sex and institutional sector, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 19. Migrants, jobs and employment income by arrival group, sex and type of legal organisation, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 20. Migrants, jobs and employment income by arrival group, sex and job duration, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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Table 21. Migrants, jobs and employment income by arrival group, sex and business employment size, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
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All data cubes

Data files
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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6160.0.

Post-release change

27/11/2024

Corrections have been made to one row in Table 3, which had repeated data of another row (table 3.3, row 2023; SA2 506011112, Camillo - Champion Lakes). All other data at the SA2, state or territory and Australia levels in this table was not impacted by the changes.

07/03/2025

The title for Graph 9 and leading commentary have been updated to clarify the population and its output used in the graph. No data has been changed. 

Methodology

Jobs in Australia methodology, 2021-22 financial year

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