Payroll Jobs

This release has ceased

Weekly payroll job indexes, sourced from Single Touch Payroll (STP) data

Reference period

Week ending 15 March 2025

Released

24/07/2025

Next release Ceased

Release date and time

24/07/2025 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In the week ending 15 March 2025, payroll jobs:

increased by 0.7% in the month from 15 February 2025
increased by 0.2% in the year from 16 March 2024

Month change periods represent the index change between the reference week and four weeks prior, whereas annual change represents the index change from 52 weeks prior.

Estimates of change throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded index values. They may differ from, though are more accurate than, change calculated from rounded values.

Final Payroll Jobs release

This is the final release of Payroll Jobs. The Payroll Jobs indexes will be replaced with a new monthly Employee Jobs measure, also derived from Single Touch Payroll data, that will be available in the Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator from February 2026.

Update to employer characteristics

The source of employer characteristics - industry and employment size - has been updated in this release, significantly reducing the number of payroll jobs with 'unknown' employer characteristics and improving the quality of indexes that include these characteristics. For more information, see the Update of employer characteristics section of the Methodology.

Change periods

Change periods
Period reference	Reference week ending	Month change from	Annual change from
March 2025	15 March 2025	15 February 2025	16 March 2024
February 2025	15 February 2025	18 January 2025	17 February 2024
January 2025	18 January 2025	21 December 2024	20 January 2024

Interpreting drivers of index change

Impact of employer and jobholder characteristics updates

National

Percentage change in payroll jobs (a)
	Jan-25	Feb-25	Mar-25
Month change (%)	-2.5	2.5	0.7
Year change (%)	0.3	0.4	0.2

Refer to Change periods in the Key statistics section for detailed reference dates.

The 0.7% positive monthly movement to mid-March 2025 was influenced by a typical seasonal increase in payroll jobs in the Education and training industry at this time of year.

Payroll jobs, comparison across years (a)(b)(c)
	2020 (pts)	2021 (pts)	2022 (pts)	2023 (pts)	2024 (pts)	2025 (pts)
Week 0	92.7	96.2	100.1	106.5	110.1	112.4
Week 1	95.2	97.4	100.7	106.8	110.1	110.9
Week 2	96.7	99.6	103.1	109.3	112.6	113.0
Week 3	97.5	100.6	104.6	110.8	114.2	114.6
Week 4	98.1	101.1	105.4	111.6	114.8	115.3
Week 5	98.7	101.7	105.9	112.5	115.7	115.9
Week 6	99.2	102.4	106.5	113.1	116.4	116.6
Week 7	99.5	102.7	106.3	113.6	116.9	117.4
Week 8	99.5	103.1	106.1	114.2	117.3	117.8
Week 9	99.9	103.4	106.5	114.5	117.5	117.9
Week 10	100.0	103.7	107.5	114.8	117.7	117.9
Week 11	99.1	103.9	107.9	114.9	118.0	118.2
Week 12	95.6	103.8	107.9	115.1	117.9
Week 13	93.1	102.9	107.7	114.9	117.1
Week 14	91.8	102.5	108.0	114.3	116.7
Week 15	91.7	102.8	107.3	114.0	117.0
Week 16	92.3	103.1	107.0	114.4	117.0
Week 17	92.8	103.4	107.5	114.8	117.1
Week 18	93.5	103.8	108.0	115.2	117.2
Week 19	94.2	104.1	108.3	115.6	117.6
Week 20	94.6	104.3	108.6	115.6	117.7
Week 21	94.9	104.0	108.9	115.6	117.7
Week 22	95.7	103.6	108.8	115.6	117.7
Week 23	96.2	103.8	109.2	115.7	117.7
Week 24	96.3	104.0	109.7	116.0	117.8
Week 25	96.3	103.7	110.2	115.9	117.9
Week 26	97.5	103.7	110.7	115.6	118.1
Week 27	98.6	104.5	111.7	116.5	118.1
Week 28	98.7	104.3	111.7	116.4	117.9
Week 29	98.9	103.1	111.9	116.6	117.9
Week 30	99.2	103.2	112.3	116.8	118.0
Week 31	99.2	103.0	112.4	116.8	118.3
Week 32	99.1	102.9	112.7	117.2	118.6
Week 33	99.2	102.3	112.9	117.5	118.6
Week 34	99.3	101.7	113.2	117.6	118.8
Week 35	99.6	101.8	113.1	117.4	118.8
Week 36	100.1	102.4	113.3	117.5	118.8
Week 37	100.2	102.9	113.4	117.8	119.0
Week 38	100.1	102.7	113.0	117.7	118.8
Week 39	99.4	102.4	112.6	117.2	118.3
Week 40	99.5	102.8	112.8	117.3	118.1
Week 41	100.4	104.5	113.5	118.4	118.4
Week 42	100.7	105.7	113.8	118.7	118.9
Week 43	100.9	106.6	113.9	118.3	119.2
Week 44	101.4	107.1	114.1	118.4	119.3
Week 45	102.1	107.6	114.6	118.7	119.5
Week 46	102.5	108.1	114.9	118.9	119.8
Week 47	102.8	108.4	115.2	119.1	119.8
Week 48	103.3	109.0	115.5	119.1	120.0
Week 49	103.4	108.8	115.4	119.0	119.8
Week 50	102.6	108.0	114.6	118.3	119.6
Week 51	98.9	104.3	111.3	115.4	117.5

Payroll jobs, comparison across years (a)(b)(c)

["","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"]

[["Week 0","Week 1","Week 2","Week 3","Week 4","Week 5","Week 6","Week 7","Week 8","Week 9","Week 10","Week 11","Week 12","Week 13","Week 14","Week 15","Week 16","Week 17","Week 18","Week 19","Week 20","Week 21","Week 22","Week 23","Week 24","Week 25","Week 26","Week 27","Week 28","Week 29","Week 30","Week 31","Week 32","Week 33","Week 34","Week 35","Week 36","Week 37","Week 38","Week 39","Week 40","Week 41","Week 42","Week 43","Week 44","Week 45","Week 46","Week 47","Week 48","Week 49","Week 50","Week 51"],[[92.7],[95.2],[96.7],[97.5],[98.1],[98.7],[99.2],[99.5],[99.5],[99.9],[100],[99.1],[95.6],[93.1],[91.8],[91.7],[92.3],[92.8],[93.5],[94.2],[94.6],[94.9],[95.7],[96.2],[96.3],[96.3],[97.5],[98.6],[98.7],[98.9],[99.2],[99.2],[99.1],[99.2],[99.3],[99.6],[100.1],[100.2],[100.1],[99.4],[99.5],[100.4],[100.7],[100.9],[101.4],[102.1],[102.5],[102.8],[103.3],[103.4],[102.6],[98.9]],[[96.2],[97.4],[99.6],[100.6],[101.1],[101.7],[102.4],[102.7],[103.1],[103.4],[103.7],[103.9],[103.8],[102.9],[102.5],[102.8],[103.1],[103.4],[103.8],[104.1],[104.3],[104],[103.6],[103.8],[104],[103.7],[103.7],[104.5],[104.3],[103.1],[103.2],[103],[102.9],[102.3],[101.7],[101.8],[102.4],[102.9],[102.7],[102.4],[102.8],[104.5],[105.7],[106.6],[107.1],[107.6],[108.1],[108.4],[109],[108.8],[108],[104.3]],[[100.1],[100.7],[103.1],[104.6],[105.4],[105.9],[106.5],[106.3],[106.1],[106.5],[107.5],[107.9],[107.9],[107.7],[108],[107.3],[107],[107.5],[108],[108.3],[108.6],[108.9],[108.8],[109.2],[109.7],[110.2],[110.7],[111.7],[111.7],[111.9],[112.3],[112.4],[112.7],[112.9],[113.2],[113.1],[113.3],[113.4],[113],[112.6],[112.8],[113.5],[113.8],[113.9],[114.1],[114.6],[114.9],[115.2],[115.5],[115.4],[114.6],[111.3]],[[106.5],[106.8],[109.3],[110.8],[111.6],[112.5],[113.1],[113.6],[114.2],[114.5],[114.8],[114.9],[115.1],[114.9],[114.3],[114],[114.4],[114.8],[115.2],[115.6],[115.6],[115.6],[115.6],[115.7],[116],[115.9],[115.6],[116.5],[116.4],[116.6],[116.8],[116.8],[117.2],[117.5],[117.6],[117.4],[117.5],[117.8],[117.7],[117.2],[117.3],[118.4],[118.7],[118.3],[118.4],[118.7],[118.9],[119.1],[119.1],[119],[118.3],[115.4]],[[110.1],[110.1],[112.6],[114.2],[114.8],[115.7],[116.4],[116.9],[117.3],[117.5],[117.7],[118],[117.9],[117.1],[116.7],[117],[117],[117.1],[117.2],[117.6],[117.7],[117.7],[117.7],[117.7],[117.8],[117.9],[118.1],[118.1],[117.9],[117.9],[118],[118.3],[118.6],[118.6],[118.8],[118.8],[118.8],[119],[118.8],[118.3],[118.1],[118.4],[118.9],[119.2],[119.3],[119.5],[119.8],[119.8],[120],[119.8],[119.6],[117.5]],[[112.4],[110.9],[113],[114.6],[115.3],[115.9],[116.6],[117.4],[117.8],[117.9],[117.9],[118.2],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null],[null]]]

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Indexed to the week ending 14 March 2020 (week 10 in 2020).
Week 0 represents the weeks ending 4 January 2020, 2 January 2021, 1 January 2022, 31 December 2022, 30 December 2023, and 28 December 2024. Week 50 represents the weeks ending 19 December 2020, 18 December 2021, 17 December 2022, 16 December 2023, and 14 December 2024.
There is greater variation in business payroll reporting around the change in financial years. Refer to End of financial year variability in the Factors affecting interpretation section of the Methodology for more information.

State and territory

All geographical areas in this release represent the residential address of the jobholder.

In the month to 15 March 2025, payroll jobs change varied across states and territories.

All states and territories recorded increases.
The largest increase (1.4%) was in Western Australia influenced by the state election.
Queensland and Tasmania both recorded the smallest increase (0.2%).

Month change in payroll jobs, by state and territory (a)
	Mar-24 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
New South Wales	0.9	0.8
Victoria	0.9	0.9
Queensland	0.8	0.2
South Australia	0.7	0.6
Western Australia	0.7	1.4
Tasmania	1.1	0.2
Northern Territory	1.4	0.6
Australian Capital Territory	1.2	0.6

Month change in payroll jobs, by state and territory (a)

["","Mar-24 (%)","Mar-25 (%)"]

[["New South Wales","Victoria","Queensland","South Australia","Western Australia","Tasmania","Northern Territory","Australian Capital Territory"],[[0.9],[0.9],[0.8],[0.7],[0.7],[1.1],[1.4],[1.2]],[[0.8],[0.9],[0.2],[0.6],[1.4],[0.2],[0.6],[0.6]]]

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Refer to Change periods in the Key statistics section for detailed reference dates.

Month change

Month change in payroll jobs, by state and territory (a)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
New South Wales	-2.9	2.4	0.8
Victoria	-3.0	2.9	0.9
Queensland	-1.8	2.0	0.2
South Australia	-1.7	2.8	0.6
Western Australia	-1.9	2.0	1.4
Tasmania	-2.5	2.0	0.2
Northern Territory	-1.7	3.3	0.6
Australian Capital Territory	-2.5	2.9	0.6
Australia	-2.5	2.5	0.7

Annual change

Annual change in payroll jobs, by state and territory (a)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
New South Wales	0.0	0.0	-0.1
Victoria	0.0	0.0	0.0
Queensland	0.6	0.8	0.2
South Australia	0.8	1.0	0.9
Western Australia	0.8	0.8	1.4
Tasmania	0.0	0.4	-0.4
Northern Territory	1.9	2.3	1.5
Australian Capital Territory	0.3	0.7	0.2
Australia	0.3	0.4	0.2

Age group

In the month to 15 March 2025, the largest change in payroll jobs was worked by persons aged 70 and over, up 2.6%.

Month change

Month change in payroll jobs, by age group (a)(b)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
15-19	-7.5	4.4	-0.2
20-29	-3.4	2.5	1.3
30-39	-1.8	2.0	0.6
40-49	-1.6	2.3	0.6
50-59	-1.5	2.0	0.5
60-69	-2.2	2.7	1.0
70 and over	-5.4	6.8	2.6
All persons	-2.5	2.5	0.7

Annual change

Annual change in payroll jobs, by age group (a)(b)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
15-19	-5.1	-3.7	-4.2
20-29	-0.9	-0.7	-0.8
30-39	0.8	0.8	0.5
40-49	1.8	1.7	1.7
50-59	0.6	0.5	0.5
60-69	1.6	1.2	1.0
70 and over	4.4	5.0	4.9
All persons	0.3	0.4	0.2

Industry

In the month to 15 March 2025, across the 19 industries, payroll jobs increased in 13 industries, was flat in 2 and decreased in 4.

The largest increase was in Education and training (5.9%).
The largest decrease was in 3 industries, Retail trade, Rental hiring and real estate services, and Professional, scientific and technical services (-0.2%).

Month change in payroll jobs, by industry (a)(b)
	Mar-24 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
Retail trade	-0.2	-0.2
Rental, hiring and real estate services	-0.1	-0.2
Professional, scientific and technical services	-0.1	-0.2
Information media and telecommunications	-0.5	-0.1
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	0.5	0.0
Manufacturing	0.0	0.0
Construction	0.0	0.1
Transport, postal and warehousing	0.3	0.1
Financial and insurance services	0.4	0.1
Mining	-0.1	0.2
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	0.4	0.3
Administrative and support services	0.5	0.3
Public administration and safety	0.8	0.3
Health care and social assistance	1.0	0.3
Other services	0.1	0.3
Wholesale trade	-0.2	0.5
Accommodation and food services	0.7	0.5
Arts and recreation services	2.1	0.8
Education and training	5.1	5.9

Month change in payroll jobs, by industry (a)(b)

["","Mar-24 (%)","Mar-25 (%)"]

[["Retail trade","Rental, hiring and real estate services","Professional, scientific and technical services","Information media and telecommunications","Agriculture, forestry and fishing","Manufacturing","Construction","Transport, postal and warehousing","Financial and insurance services","Mining","Electricity, gas, water and waste services","Administrative and support services","Public administration and safety","Health care and social assistance","Other services","Wholesale trade","Accommodation and food services","Arts and recreation services","Education and training"],[[-0.2],[-0.1],[-0.1],[-0.5],[0.5],[0],[0],[0.3],[0.4],[-0.1],[0.4],[0.5],[0.8],[1],[0.1],[-0.2],[0.7],[2.1],[5.1]],[[-0.2],[-0.2],[-0.2],[-0.1],[0],[0],[0.1],[0.1],[0.1],[0.2],[0.3],[0.3],[0.3],[0.3],[0.3],[0.5],[0.5],[0.8],[5.9]]]

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Industries ranked by percentage change in the latest month.
Refer to Change periods in the Key statistics section for detailed reference dates.

Month change

Month change in payroll jobs, by industry (a)(b)(c)(d)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-1.0	-0.1	0.0
Mining	0.0	-0.6	0.2
Manufacturing	1.4	1.6	0.0
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	0.4	0.9	0.3
Construction	3.3	2.5	0.1
Wholesale trade	0.3	0.0	0.5
Retail trade	-2.4	0.3	-0.2
Accommodation and food services	0.8	1.6	0.5
Transport, postal and warehousing	-0.8	1.7	0.1
Information media and telecommunications	1.6	1.6	-0.1
Financial and insurance services	-0.3	0.8	0.1
Rental, hiring and real estate services	-1.0	2.3	-0.2
Professional, scientific and technical services	1.1	1.3	-0.2
Administrative and support services	-0.3	2.8	0.3
Public administration and safety	0.4	2.0	0.3
Education and training	-8.9	11.7	5.9
Health care and social assistance	0.7	1.8	0.3
Arts and recreation services	-0.1	5.2	0.8
Other services	0.3	2.6	0.3
All industries	-2.5	2.5	0.7

Annual change

Annual change in payroll jobs, by industry (a)(b)(c)(d)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-3.8	-3.9	-4.4
Mining	0.1	-0.4	-0.1
Manufacturing	-1.9	-1.5	-1.5
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	4.0	4.0	3.8
Construction	-0.4	-0.2	-0.2
Wholesale trade	-0.6	-1.2	-0.6
Retail trade	-1.0	-0.4	-0.4
Accommodation and food services	-3.7	-3.8	-4.0
Transport, postal and warehousing	0.3	0.1	-0.1
Information media and telecommunications	-1.5	-1.0	-0.6
Financial and insurance services	0.5	0.7	0.5
Rental, hiring and real estate services	-2.7	-2.1	-2.2
Professional, scientific and technical services	-1.3	-1.3	-1.4
Administrative and support services	-3.3	-3.4	-3.6
Public administration and safety	4.5	4.7	4.2
Education and training	1.2	1.3	2.0
Health care and social assistance	5.3	5.1	4.4
Arts and recreation services	0.7	1.5	0.2
Other services	-0.3	-0.1	0.1
All industries	0.3	0.4	0.2

Industry subdivision

Time series estimates of payroll jobs by industry subdivision are presented as index values in Table 2 of the Data downloads. Refer to the Glossary in the Methodology for more detailed information on the industry classification.

Industry employment guide

Refer to the ABS Industry employment guide for more detailed information on the range of ABS labour measures, their purpose and how to use them.

Employment size

In the month to 15 March 2025, payroll jobs increased in 2 of the 3 employment size groups.

Employers with 200 employees and over had the largest increase (1.2%).
Employers with 20-199 employees had no increase (0.0%).

Month change

Month change in payroll jobs, by employment size (a)(b)(c)(d)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
0-19 employees	-1.4	3.1	0.1
20-199 employees	2.3	2.3	0.0
200 employees and over	-1.2	2.1	1.2
All businesses	-2.5	2.5	0.7

Annual change

Annual change in payroll jobs, by employment size (a)(b)(c)(d)
	Jan-25 (%)	Feb-25 (%)	Mar-25 (%)
0-19 employees	-3.0	-2.7	-3.3
20-199 employees	0.3	0.2	-0.3
200 employees and over	1.9	2.0	2.3
All businesses	0.3	0.4	0.2

Data downloads

Caution should be used when reviewing the series where it crosses Business Register 'transition points'. For more information, see the Update of employer characteristics section of the Methodology.

Table 1. Payroll jobs, indexes

State/territory, industry division and age groups.

Data files

Download xlsx [6.77 MB]

Table 2. Payroll jobs by industry subdivision, indexes

Industry division and subdivision.

Data files

Download xlsx [170.96 KB]

Table 3. Payroll jobs by employment size, indexes

State/territory and employment size groups.

Data files

Download xlsx [211.59 KB]

Distribution of characteristics

Selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics are included to aid interpretability of payroll job estimates.

Records with 'unknown' characteristics are excluded from the calculation of proportions. Refer to the Updating characteristic variables and Inclusion of unknown characteristics in the How data is transformed section of the Methodology for more information on the source, impact and proportion of unknowns.

Table 4. Payroll jobs distributions of characteristics, proportions

Previously named 'Table 20: Payroll jobs - characteristics distributions'.

Data files

Download xlsx [516.96 KB]

All data cubes

Data files

Download zip [2.09 MB]

Previously published articles and information of interest are linked below:

Labour statistics recent and upcoming developments (updated regularly)
Characteristics spotlight: 2022 (August 2022)
Characteristics spotlight: 2021 (May 2021)
Seasonality spotlight: 2022 to 2023 year end (April 2023)
Seasonality spotlight: 2021 to 2022 year end (February 2022)
Seasonality spotlight: 2020 to 2021 year end (February 2021)
A year of COVID-19 through payroll jobs and wages statistics (March 2021)
Regional spotlight: New South Wales and Queensland (April 2022)

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6160.0.55.001.

Methodology

Scope

Payroll jobs of all businesses reporting through Single Touch Payroll (STP), regardless of the age or Australian residency status of the jobholder.

Geography

Geography relates to the jobholder's residential address and is available for:

Australia total
States and territories

Source

Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Single Touch Payroll (STP) administrative data combined with ATO Client Register and ABS Business Register data.

Collection method

The ABS receives selected employer and employee level data from the ATO STP system, which are combined with employer and jobholder characteristics from the ABS Business Register and ATO Client Register.

Concepts, sources and methods

A payroll job is a relationship between an employee and their employer where the employee is paid through STP-enabled payroll or accounting software.

History of changes

Refer to the History of changes section.

View full methodology

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APA

Payroll Jobs

APA

Key statistics

Final Payroll Jobs release

Update to employer characteristics

Change periods

Interpreting drivers of index change

Impact of employer and jobholder characteristics updates

National

State and territory

Month change

Annual change

Age group

Month change

Annual change

Industry

Month change

Annual change

Industry subdivision

Industry employment guide

Employment size

Month change

Annual change

Data downloads

Table 1. Payroll jobs, indexes

Table 2. Payroll jobs by industry subdivision, indexes

Table 3. Payroll jobs by employment size, indexes

Distribution of characteristics

Table 4. Payroll jobs distributions of characteristics, proportions

All data cubes

Previous articles

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

Scope

Geography

Source

Collection method

Concepts, sources and methods

History of changes

Do you need more detailed statistics?

Request data

Microdata and TableBuilder