Appendix 1 – Explanatory Notes

APSED

In 1998–99 the APS Commission, in consultation with APS agencies, built a database to replace the Continuous Record of Personnel (CRP). The APS Employment Database (APSED) draws data electronically from agencies’ HR systems. CRP data has been transferred to APSED to form the historical series.

Full-time/part-time

The full-time and part-time employment status used in this publication refers to the number of hours worked. Full-time staff are defined as those who ordinarily work 35 hours or more per week. Staff working fewer than 35 hours per week are defined as working part-time. This definition is based on that used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in their Australian Labour Market Statistics publication (catalogue no. 6105.0).

Ongoing/Non-ongoing

‘Ongoing employment’ refers to the employment of an APS employee as an ongoing employee as mentioned in s. 22(2)(a) of the PS Act. The employee is referred to as an ongoing employee. ‘Non-ongoing employment’ is a generic term which refers to the engagement of APS employees for either a specified term or for the duration of a specified task or for duties that are irregular or intermittent as mentioned in ss. 22(2)(b) and (c) of the PS Act. A person engaged on a non-ongoing basis is referred to as a non-ongoing employee.

Agencies

The agencies listed in this publication are defined in s. 7 of the PS Act. The list has substantially changed in recent years due to the Machinery of Government changes and Administrative Arrangement Orders occurring in almost every year for the past decade. A list of all agencies, including those organisations not separately identified in the tables, is shown at Appendix 5.

Classifications

The classifications used in this Bulletin are those groups listed in the Public Service Classification Rules 2000 (the Classification Rules).

Due to the introduction of broadbanding of classifications by some agencies, APSED was designed with the capacity to store both the minimum and maximum classification levels for employees. Any data after or including 30 June 1999 refer to the maximum classification level and are, therefore, not directly comparable with data for earlier years. Appendix 2 provides details about the range of broadbanded classification levels and the impact of broadbanding on reporting of classification.

Data in this Bulletin refer to the actual classification of staff and include temporary assignments to a higher level for periods of greater than 90 days. Data before 30 June 1999 refer only to substantive classification.

Senior Executive Service (SES) includes SES Bands 1, 2 and 3 and SES Specialist Bands 1, 2 and 3. This group also includes employees grouped with the equivalent SES bands under the Classification Rules.

EL includes Executive Levels 1 and 2 (formerly Senior Officer Grades C, B and A). This group also includes employees grouped with the equivalent Executive Levels under the Classification Rules such as Medical Officers and Senior Customs Officers.

APS includes staff at the APS 1 to 6 levels. This group includes Research Officers and some other equivalents who were previously in the Information Technology and Professional classification streams.

Trainee includes Cadets and Trainees.

Graduate Trainee refers to those employees in a specific graduate program only.

Other includes staff in classifications not mentioned in the above categories. All classifications that were listed separately in previous publications have been reclassified to their equivalent level under the new structure.

State

Location refers to the physical location of staff. Prior to the 1999–00 Statistical Bulletin, State referred to the location of the pay area from which staff were paid. Some agencies were unable to provide postcodes for some employees. In the tables that include state data, these employees are shown as N/A.

Engagement

An engagement refers to the engagement or re-engagement of staff under s. 22 of the PS Act.

Separation

A separation occurs when an employee ceases to be employed under the PS Act. Data for separations under the Public Service Act 1922 (the old Act) have, where possible, been coded to equivalents under the PS Act.

Transfers and promotions

The terminology of ‘transfers’ and ‘promotions’ has been used in this publication because they are commonly understood by most APS employees. The terminology used in the PS Act is ‘movement at level’ for transfer between agencies and ‘assignment of duties’ for internal transfer within an agency.  Promotion is defined as ‘the assignment to the employee of duties as a higher classification than the employee’s current classification (whether or not the employee moves to another agency)’.

Calculation of yearly APS change

From time to time, the number of staff covered by the PS Act is affected by changes in administrative arrangements. It is necessary to adjust for changes in coverage when comparing the data with previous years’ data and calculating changes for the APS (refer to Appendix 4). During 2002–03 thirty-five employees moved into coverage of the PS Act and no employees moved out of coverage.

Symbols and other usages

.           zero value

N/A     not available