Labour Account Australia

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Provides experimental estimates for the Australian Labour Account, a framework to produce a coherent and consistent set of aggregate labour statistics

Reference period
September 2019
Released
10/12/2019

Key statistics

  • Total number of jobs increased 0.4% (61,700) in trend terms.
  • Total number of employed persons increased 0.6% in trend terms.
  • Job vacancies down 0.7% in trend terms.
  • Hours actually worked increased to 0.5% in trend terms.

Key findings

The number of filled jobs in Australia increased by 86,200 to 14.4 million in seasonally adjusted terms in the September quarter 2019.

Main jobs increased by 62,300 and secondary jobs increased by 23,900.

Hours actually worked increased by 61.8 million hours to 5.4 billion hours.

Total labour income increased by $2,809 million, resulting in the average labour income per employed person being $19,060.

Data Item Description                     Trend           Seasonally Adjusted
Jun qtr 2019 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Sep qtr 2018 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Jun qtr 2019 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Sep qtr 2018 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Filled Jobs0.42.10.62.4
Main Job0.52.50.52.7
Secondary Job-0.7-2.92.6-1.4
Job Vacancies-0.7-1.1-2.4-2.0
Hours Actually Worked0.52.41.22.5
Average Hours Actually
Worked Per Job
0.10.30.50.0
Average Income Per
Employed Person
0.71.70.51.6

Analysis

​​​​​​​Trend

In trend terms the total number of jobs in Australia increased by 61,700 (or 0.4%), made up of a decrease of 1,700 in job vacancies and an increase of 63,500 in filled jobs.

Filled jobs in Australia grew by 0.4% in the September quarter 2019, following a 0.4% rise in the June quarter 2019. Filled jobs grew 2.1% through the year in trend terms.

The number of main jobs grew by 69,800 (an increase of 0.5%) while secondary jobs decreased by 6,300 (a decrease of 0.7%) in the September quarter 2019.

The total number of employed persons increased by 0.6% to 13.5 million in the September quarter 2019.

The total number of hours actually worked increased by 0.5% to 5.4 billion hours and total labour income increased by 1.3% to $257,482 million.

Seasonally adjusted

Jobs

Filled jobs in Australia grew by 0.6% in the September quarter 2019, following a 0.3% rise in the June quarter 2019. Filled jobs grew 2.4% through the year in seasonally adjusted terms.

The total number of jobs in Australia increased by 80,300 (or 0.6%), made up of a decrease of 5,900 in job vacancies and an increase of 86,200 in filled jobs.

The proportion of vacant jobs (PVJ) decreased to 1.6% in the September quarter 2019, following a recent high of 1.7% in the March quarter 2019.

The number of main jobs grew by 62,300 (an increase of 0.5%), while secondary jobs increased by 23,900 (an increase of 2.6%) in the September quarter 2019.

The number of public sector jobs increased by 0.3% in the September 2019 quarter, while the number of private sector jobs increased by 0.7%.

Persons

The total number of employed persons increased by 0.6% to 13.5 million in the September quarter 2019.

The number of multiple job holders increased by 2.8% in the September quarter 2019.

There were 715,000 unemployed persons in the September quarter 2019, an increase of 11,000 persons from June quarter 2019.

There were 1,153,000 underemployed persons in the September quarter 2019, an increase of 8,000 persons from June quarter 2019.

Volumes

The total number of hours actually worked increased by 1.2% to 5.4 billion hours; and the total number of hours paid increased 0.6% to 5.8 billion hours.

Payments

Total labour income increased by 1.1% to $257,034 million.

Total compensation of employees increased by 1.0% to $235,206 million, and labour income from self-employment decreased by 1.7% to $21,828 million.

Over the same period, total labour costs increased by $2,810 million (1.0%) to $274,061 million.

Ratio

Average income per person increased by 0.5% to $19,060 in the September quarter 2019.

Average hours worked per job decreased by 0.5% to 377 hours. Average hours worked per job is the hours actually worked divided by all filled jobs.

Average labour cost per hour paid remained the same at $47.

 

Jobs

Filled jobs in Australia grew by 0.6% in the September quarter 2019, following a 0.3% rise in the June quarter 2019. Filled jobs grew 2.4% through the year in seasonally adjusted terms.

Labour Account filled jobs, proportion by industry, September quarter 2019

IndustryLabour Account
Filled Jobs
September qtr 2019
('000)
Proportion of Total
All Industries
September qtr 2019
(%)
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)466.23.2
Mining (B)191.51.3
Manufacturing (C)904.86.3
Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D)127.50.9
Construction (E)1,156.28.0
Wholesale trade (F)593.54.1
Retail trade (G)1,395.99.7
Accommodation and food services (H)1,135.37.9
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)709.54.9
Information media and telecommunications (J)179.61.2
Financial and insurance services (K)451.03.1
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)302.22.1
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1,250.08.7
Administrative and support services (N)935.36.5
Public administration and safety (O)770.65.4
Education and training (P)1,134.97.9
Health care and social assistance (Q)1,877.613.0
Arts and recreation services (R)241.31.7
Other services (S)572.24.0
Total All Industries14,395.1100.0

Labour Account filled jobs, percentage change by industry, September quarter 2019

Industry                   Trend          Seasonally Adjusted
Jun qtr 2019 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Sep qtr 2018 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Jun qtr 2019 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Sep qtr 2018 to
Sep qtr 2019
% change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)-1.0-5.10.2-3.7
Mining (B)1.87.70.67.1
Manufacturing (C)0.62.81.13.1
Electricity, gas water and waste services (D)3.27.24.47.9
Construction (E)-0.6-1.91.3-1.5
Wholesale trade (F)0.53.42.45.0
Retail trade (G)-0.8-0.4-2.4-1.3
Accommodation and food services (H)0.90.60.90.1
Transport, postal and warehousing (I)0.82.42.63.7
Information media and telecommunications (J)-1.1-4.4-0.8-4.3
Financial and insurance services (K)-0.60.30.1-0.5
Rental, hiring and real estate services (L)1.22.32.82.9
Professional, scientific and technical services (M)1.23.91.63.1
Administrative and support services (N)1.82.01.94.3
Public administration and safety (O)0.10.3-0.20.1
Education and training (P)0.74.90.14.9
Health care and social assistance (Q)1.46.30.88.2
Arts and recreation services (R)-1.01.4-1.82.2
Other services (S)-0.94.3-2.03.3
Total All Industries0.42.10.62.4

Secondary jobs

Secondary jobs are where a person is working more than one job at the same time, and may consist of one or more additional jobs. These jobs can be held by persons who have their main job in the same or a different industry. The proportion of secondary jobs to filled jobs was 6.5% in the September quarter 2019 and 6.4% in the previous quarter.

The top three industries who have the highest number of secondary jobs in the September quarter 2019 were Administrative and support services, Health care and social assistance and Education and training.

Persons

The Australian Labour Account produces the number of people employed from an industry perspective. As a result, the sum of employed persons in the Australian Labour Account across industry divisions does not equal the total number of people employed in the whole economy, given some people are employed in multiple industries.

The top three industries who have the highest number of employed persons in the September quarter 2019 were Health care and social assistance, Retail trade and Professional, scientific and technical services.

Volume (hours)

Hours actually worked is the time spent in a job for the performance of activities that contribute to the production of goods and services during a specified short or long reference period.

The top three industries who have the highest number of hours actually worked in the September quarter 2019 were Health care and social assistance, Professional, scientific and technical services and Construction.

Payments

The Labour Account Payments quadrant presents the costs incurred by enterprises in employing labour, and the incomes received by people from its provision. Total income consists of compensation of employees and labour income from self-employment. The addition of other related costs to employers to total income will derive total labour costs.

The top three industries who have the highest total labour income in the September quarter 2019 were Health care and social assistance, Professional, scientific and technical services and Construction.

Data downloads

Table 1. Total all industries - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 2. Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 3. Mining (B) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 4. Manufacturing (C) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 5. Electricity, gas, water and waste services (D) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 6. Construction (E) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 7. Wholesale trade (F) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 8. Retail trade (G) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 9. Accommodation and food services (H) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 10. Transport, postal and warehousing (I) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 11. Information media and telecommunications (J) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 12. Financial and insurance services (K) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 13. Rental, hiring and real estate services (L) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 14. Professional, scientific and technical services (M) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 15. Administrative and support services (N) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 16. Public administration and safety (O) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 17. Education and training (P) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 18. Health care and social assistance (Q) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 19. Arts and recreation services (R) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 20. Other services (S) - trend, seasonally adjusted and original

Table 21. Unbalanced: total all industries - original

Table 22. Quarterly revisions

History of changes

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