Weekly Payroll Jobs, Week ending 17 February 2024

Update of employer characteristics

The source of employer characteristics - industry, employment size and sector - has been updated in this release from the week ending 30 December 2023 resulting in revisions to all industry, employment size and sector indexes from this point forward.

This third periodic update has refreshed employer characteristics as well as reduced the number of payroll jobs with 'unknown' employment characteristics improving the quality of impacted indexes. The magnitude of revisions in this update is larger than the last update due to a longer time period between updates and component indexes are impacted differently. For more information, see the Update of employer characteristics section of the Methodology.

The date at which employer characteristics are updated, called 'transition points', can be visible in the levels of some indexes. Users should always exercise caution when comparing week-on-week changes and index levels across transitions points - the latest being the week ending 30 December 2023.

The ABS recommends that analyses of previously published estimates be refreshed with the data from this release.

Seasonality and reporting variability

The movements in payroll jobs estimates at the end and start of the calendar year include large seasonal changes in the labour market - further described in a historical seasonality spotlight article.

Some businesses have reduced activity in late December and early January which may lead to a higher degree of reporting variability over this period. This can result in higher than usual levels of revision for payroll jobs for this period when more normal reporting resumes. Further information is available in the Data variability and revisions section of the Methodology.

Factors affecting interpretation

Revisions

Change periods

National

In the month to 17 February 2024, payroll jobs increased by 2.0%, compared to a decrease of 1.6% in the previous month.

Payroll jobs, comparison across years (a)(b)(c)
Week Ending	2020 (pts)	2021 (pts)	2022 (pts)	2023 (pts)	2024 (pts)
Week 0	92.7	96.1	99.9	105.6	109.5
Week 1	95.2	97.4	100.5	106.0	109.0
Week 2	96.7	99.5	102.8	108.4	111.0
Week 3	97.5	100.5	104.2	109.8	112.4
Week 4	98.1	101.1	105.0	110.5	113.2
Week 5	98.7	101.6	105.5	111.4	113.9
Week 6	99.2	102.3	106.1	112.0	114.4
Week 7	99.5	102.6	105.9	112.5	114.7
Week 8	99.5	103.1	105.8	113.0
Week 9	99.9	103.3	106.1	113.4
Week 10	100.0	103.7	107.1	113.6
Week 11	99.1	103.8	107.5	113.7
Week 12	95.6	103.7	107.6	113.9
Week 13	93.1	102.8	107.3	113.7
Week 14	91.7	102.5	107.5	113.1
Week 15	91.7	102.7	106.9	112.8
Week 16	92.3	103.0	106.5	113.2
Week 17	92.8	103.3	107.1	113.5
Week 18	93.5	103.7	107.6	113.9
Week 19	94.2	104.0	107.9	114.3
Week 20	94.5	104.2	108.2	114.3
Week 21	94.9	103.9	108.4	114.3
Week 22	95.7	103.5	108.3	114.3
Week 23	96.2	103.7	108.7	114.3
Week 24	96.3	103.8	109.2	114.5
Week 25	96.3	103.5	109.7	114.4
Week 26	97.5	103.6	110.1	113.9
Week 27	98.6	104.4	111.0	114.3
Week 28	98.7	104.1	111.0	114.2
Week 29	98.9	102.9	111.1	114.3
Week 30	99.1	103.1	111.5	114.5
Week 31	99.2	102.9	111.6	114.6
Week 32	99.1	102.8	111.9	114.9
Week 33	99.2	102.1	112.1	115.1
Week 34	99.3	101.6	112.3	115.2
Week 35	99.6	101.7	112.3	114.9
Week 36	100.0	102.3	112.5	115.1
Week 37	100.2	102.7	112.5	115.3
Week 38	100.0	102.5	112.2	115.1
Week 39	99.3	102.2	111.7	114.6
Week 40	99.5	102.6	111.9	114.5
Week 41	100.4	104.3	112.6	115.5
Week 42	100.7	105.5	112.9	115.8
Week 43	100.9	106.4	113.0	115.3
Week 44	101.3	106.9	113.2	115.3
Week 45	102.1	107.4	113.7	115.6
Week 46	102.4	107.9	114.0	115.8
Week 47	102.8	108.2	114.2	116.8
Week 48	103.3	108.7	114.5	117.3
Week 49	103.4	108.5	114.3	117.6
Week 50	102.6	107.7	113.7	117.0
Week 51	98.8	104.0	110.4	114.2

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

["Week Ending","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024"]

[["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],[91.7],[91.7],[92.3],[92.8],[93.5],[94.2],[94.5],[94.9],[95.7],[96.2],[96.3],[96.3],[97.5],[98.6],[98.7],[98.9],[99.1],[99.2],[99.1],[99.2],[99.3],[99.6],[100],[100.2],[100],[99.3],[99.5],[100.4],[100.7],[100.9],[101.3],[102.1],[102.4],[102.8],[103.3],[103.4],[102.6],[98.8]],[[96.1],[97.4],[99.5],[100.5],[101.1],[101.6],[102.3],[102.6],[103.1],[103.3],[103.7],[103.8],[103.7],[102.8],[102.5],[102.7],[103],[103.3],[103.7],[104],[104.2],[103.9],[103.5],[103.7],[103.8],[103.5],[103.6],[104.4],[104.1],[102.9],[103.1],[102.9],[102.8],[102.1],[101.6],[101.7],[102.3],[102.7],[102.5],[102.2],[102.6],[104.3],[105.5],[106.4],[106.9],[107.4],[107.9],[108.2],[108.7],[108.5],[107.7],[104]],[[99.9],[100.5],[102.8],[104.2],[105],[105.5],[106.1],[105.9],[105.8],[106.1],[107.1],[107.5],[107.6],[107.3],[107.5],[106.9],[106.5],[107.1],[107.6],[107.9],[108.2],[108.4],[108.3],[108.7],[109.2],[109.7],[110.1],[111],[111],[111.1],[111.5],[111.6],[111.9],[112.1],[112.3],[112.3],[112.5],[112.5],[112.2],[111.7],[111.9],[112.6],[112.9],[113],[113.2],[113.7],[114],[114.2],[114.5],[114.3],[113.7],[110.4]],[[105.6],[106],[108.4],[109.8],[110.5],[111.4],[112],[112.5],[113],[113.4],[113.6],[113.7],[113.9],[113.7],[113.1],[112.8],[113.2],[113.5],[113.9],[114.3],[114.3],[114.3],[114.3],[114.3],[114.5],[114.4],[113.9],[114.3],[114.2],[114.3],[114.5],[114.6],[114.9],[115.1],[115.2],[114.9],[115.1],[115.3],[115.1],[114.6],[114.5],[115.5],[115.8],[115.3],[115.3],[115.6],[115.8],[116.8],[117.3],[117.6],[117],[114.2]],[[109.5],[109],[111],[112.4],[113.2],[113.9],[114.4],[114.7],[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],[null],[null],[null],[null]]]

[]

[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"","table_units":"","axis_min":null,"axis_max":null,"tick_interval":"2","precision":"-1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"Index","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"(pts)","table_units":"(pts)","axis_min":"90","axis_max":"118","tick_interval":"2","precision":"1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

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 and 30 December 2023. Week 7 represents the weeks ending 22 February 2020, 20 February 2021, 19 February 2022, 18 February 2023 and 17 February 2024.
Around the change in financial years estimates see a greater variation in business payroll reporting. For more information, see the Data variability and revisions section.

Estimates of change throughout this release are calculated using un-rounded index values. They may be different from, but are more accurate than, movements obtained from the rounded index values.

State and territory

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

In the month to 17 February 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:

Northern Territory, up 3.1%
Victoria, up 2.5%

Percentage change in payroll jobs, by state and territory
	Fortnight (%)	Month (%)	Year (%)
New South Wales	0.8	2.1	1.3
Victoria	0.8	2.5	1.6
Queensland	0.6	1.5	1.9
South Australia	0.6	2.3	3.3
Western Australia	0.7	1.6	3.4
Tasmania	0.7	1.4	1.8
Northern Territory	1.1	3.1	4.5
Australian Capital Territory	0.9	1.9	0.4
Australia	0.7	2.0	1.9

Monthly percentage change in payroll jobs, by state and territory

This map presents the percentage change in payroll jobs in the month up to 17 February 2024, by the state and territory of the jobholder's residential address.

Sex and age group

As at 17 February 2024, the proportion of jobholders with unknown sex has risen to 8.7%. These jobholders are not evenly distributed, hence this proportion differs across detailed indexes which include sex, and can affect comparisons over time. Indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex are particularly impacted by rising proportions of unknown sex, hence the withdrawal of indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex in the release of 11 May 2023. See the historical Methods review section on the Update of jobholder characteristics for more information.

In the month to 17 February 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:

worked by females, up 2.7%
worked by persons aged 70 and over, up 6.2%

Percentage change in payroll jobs, by sex and age group (a)
		Fortnight (%)	Month (%)	Year (%)
Sex	Males	0.3	1.0	-2.5
Sex	Females	1.0	2.7	-0.5
Age group (years)	15-19	1.3	3.0	-5.1
	20-29	1.0	2.3	2.4
	30-39	0.7	1.7	2.8
	40-49	0.6	1.9	2.4
	50-59	0.4	1.6	1.0
	60-69	0.6	2.7	4.3
	70 and over	1.8	6.2	7.6
All persons		0.7	2.0	1.9

a. Persons with 'unknown' sex and age are only included in the calculation of All persons indexes. For more information, see Inclusion of unknown characteristics in How data are processed.

5 year age groups

Time series estimates of payroll jobs by 5 year age groups by sex are presented as index values in Table 8 of the Data downloads.

Industry

In the month to 17 February 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:

Education and training, up 11.9%
Arts and recreation services, up 4.2%

Percentage change in payroll jobs, by industry (a) (b)
	Fortnight (%)	Month (%)	Year (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-0.7	-0.9	-1.0
Mining	0.4	0.5	7.3
Manufacturing	0.1	0.5	2.0
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	0.0	0.4	7.6
Construction	0.0	0.9	2.0
Wholesale trade	0.4	0.1	2.4
Retail trade	-0.8	-0.7	2.0
Accommodation and food services	0.1	0.6	-1.1
Transport, postal and warehousing	0.2	1.4	1.5
Information media and telecommunications	1.2	0.7	-1.4
Financial and insurance services	-0.1	-0.4	1.5
Rental, hiring and real estate services	0.5	0.9	1.4
Professional, scientific and technical services	1.0	1.4	2.3
Administrative and support services	1.0	2.8	3.2
Public administration and safety	1.0	2.3	5.2
Education and training	4.5	11.9	5.9
Health care and social assistance	0.8	2.3	9.3
Arts and recreation services	1.6	4.2	4.0
Other services	0.1	1.3	1.1
All industries	0.7	2.0	1.9

Some industries experience pronounced seasonality in payroll jobs. For more information, see Seasonality in Data variability and revisions.
Jobs with 'unknown' industry are only included in the calculation of all industry indexes. For more information, see Inclusion of unknown characteristics in How data are processed.

Percentage change in payroll jobs by industry (a)
	Month to 18 February 2023 (%)	Month to 17 February 2024 (%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-0.6	-0.9
Retail trade	-0.4	-0.7
Financial and insurance services	0.9	-0.4
Wholesale trade	0.1	0.1
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	1.8	0.4
Mining	2.8	0.5
Manufacturing	1.7	0.5
Accommodation and food services	1.1	0.6
Information media and telecommunications	2.6	0.7
Construction	2.2	0.9
Rental, hiring and real estate services	1.5	0.9
Other services	2.2	1.3
Transport, postal and warehousing	2.3	1.4
Professional, scientific and technical services	1.5	1.4
Public administration and safety	1.7	2.3
Health care and social assistance	2.2	2.3
Administrative and support services	1.1	2.8
Arts and recreation services	5.0	4.2
Education and training	13.4	11.9

Percentage change in payroll jobs by industry (a)

["","Month to 18 February 2023","Month to 17 February 2024"]

[["Agriculture, forestry and fishing","Retail trade","Financial and insurance services","Wholesale trade","Electricity, gas, water and waste services","Mining","Manufacturing","Accommodation and food services","Information media and telecommunications","Construction","Rental, hiring and real estate services","Other services","Transport, postal and warehousing","Professional, scientific and technical services","Public administration and safety","Health care and social assistance","Administrative and support services","Arts and recreation services","Education and training"],[[-0.6],[-0.4],[0.9],[0.1],[1.8],[2.8],[1.7],[1.1],[2.6],[2.2],[1.5],[2.2],[2.3],[1.5],[1.7],[2.2],[1.1],[5],[13.4]],[[-0.9],[-0.7],[-0.4],[0.1],[0.4],[0.5],[0.5],[0.6],[0.7],[0.9],[0.9],[1.3],[1.4],[1.4],[2.3],[2.3],[2.8],[4.2],[11.9]]]

[]

[{"axis_id":"0","tick_interval":"","axis_min":"","axis_max":"","axis_title":"","precision":-1,"axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"","table_units":"","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"%","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"(%)","table_units":"(%)","axis_min":"-1","axis_max":"14","tick_interval":"0.5","precision":"1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

Industries ranked by percentage change in the latest month.

Industry subdivision

Time series estimates of payroll jobs by industry subdivision are presented as index values in Table 6 of the Data downloads. For more information on the industry classifications used in this release, see the Glossary.

Private sector industry

Time series estimates of payroll jobs by private sector for selected industry divisions are presented as index values in Table 9 of the Data downloads. More information on the sector classification can be found in Updating characteristics variables in How data are processed and the Glossary.

Industry employment guide

To learn more about the different labour measures available, their purpose and how to use them, see our Industry employment guide.

Employment size

The ABS advises caution in using the most recent periods in payroll jobs by employment size indexes, which are subject to higher than usual revisions over a longer period - particularly for small employers. These indexes are more heavily influenced by changes in reporting behaviour and reporting obligations than other indexes, affecting the interpretation of underlying change in labour market conditions. To provide more stability at the end point of these series, a month lag in the reference week is in place.

This release presents percentage change between the weeks ending 20 January 2024 and:

06 January 2024, for fortnight
23 December 2023, for month
21 January 2023, for year

In the month to 20 January 2024, the largest changes in payroll jobs were:

0-19 employees, down 17.8%

Percentage change in payroll jobs by employment size, for the week ending 20 January 2024 (a) (b)
	Fortnight (%)	Month (%)	Year (%)
0-19 employees	5.0	-17.8	-14.4
20-199 employees	4.4	9.3	9.0
200 employees and over	1.8	2.9	9.1
All businesses	3.2	-1.6	2.4

Records with 'unknown' employment size are only included in the calculation of All businesses indexes. For more information, see Revisions in sub-populations in Data variability and revisions.
The monthly and annual changes should be used with caution given they cross the 'transition point' of the update to employer characteristics. For more information, see the Update of employer characteristics section of the Methodology.

Distribution of characteristics

To aid in the interpretability of payroll job estimates, the following data download contains selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics by state and territory.

Records with 'unknown' characteristics have been excluded from the calculation of proportions. For more information on the source, impact and proportion of unknowns, see the Updating characteristic variables and Inclusion of unknown characteristics sections of How data are processed.

Table 20: Payroll jobs - characteristics distributions

Contains selected distributions of jobholder and employer characteristics.

Data files

Download xlsx [263.82 KB]

Data downloads

Indexes of persons aged 15-19 years old by sex have been withdrawn (since the 11 May 2023 release) and appear as NA (not available) in Tables 4 and 8.

Table 4: Payroll jobs indexes

Data files

Download xlsx [3.49 MB]

Table 6: Industry subdivision - Payroll jobs indexes

Data files

Download xlsx [143.44 KB]

Table 7: Employer characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Data files

Download xlsx [70.7 KB]

Table 8: Jobholder characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Data files

Download xlsx [83.46 KB]

Table 9: Sector - Payroll jobs index

Data files

Download xlsx [61.09 KB]

All data cubes

Data files

Download zip [2.62 MB]

Previous articles

Previously published articles and information of interest are linked below:

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.

APA

Citation

Weekly Payroll Jobs

APA

Citation

Key statistics

Update of employer characteristics

Seasonality and reporting variability

Factors affecting interpretation

Alternative period comparisons

Revisions

Change periods

National

State and territory

Monthly percentage change in payroll jobs, by state and territory

Sex and age group

5 year age groups

Industry

Industry subdivision

Private sector industry

Industry employment guide

Employment size

Distribution of characteristics

Table 20: Payroll jobs - characteristics distributions

Data downloads

Table 4: Payroll jobs indexes

Table 6: Industry subdivision - Payroll jobs indexes

Table 7: Employer characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Table 8: Jobholder characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Table 9: Sector - Payroll jobs index

All data cubes

Previous articles

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

Do you need more detailed statistics?

Request data

Microdata and TableBuilder

Provide feedback

APA

Weekly Payroll Jobs

APA

Key statistics

Update of employer characteristics

Seasonality and reporting variability

Factors affecting interpretation

Alternative period comparisons

Revisions

Change periods

National

State and territory

Monthly percentage change in payroll jobs, by state and territory

Sex and age group

5 year age groups

Industry

Industry subdivision

Private sector industry

Industry employment guide

Employment size

Distribution of characteristics

Table 20: Payroll jobs - characteristics distributions

Data downloads

Table 4: Payroll jobs indexes

Table 6: Industry subdivision - Payroll jobs indexes

Table 7: Employer characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Table 8: Jobholder characteristics - Payroll jobs index

Table 9: Sector - Payroll jobs index

All data cubes

Previous articles

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

Media releases

Standard seasonal rise in payroll jobs in February

Do you need more detailed statistics?

Request data

Microdata and TableBuilder