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AGE PROFILE

The increase in employment of young people, noted in last year’s report, has reversed slightly this year. The number of ongoing APS employees aged less than 25 years dropped for the first time in five years, to 5232 at June 2004. This was a decrease of 745, or 12.5% on the previous year. In absolute terms, there were decreases in all age groups under 45 years, except for the 30—34 age group, with strongest growth in the 55 and over age group.

Table 2.2 shows the proportion of staff in 10 year age groups, at June 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2004. Over the decade, the largest increase has been in the 45—54 age group, which increased by 6.6 percentage points. This age group is now almost as large in number as the 35—44 group, and will outnumber them within a few years if current trends continue. The 55 and over age group has grown steadily over the decade, particularly in the past few years.

Table 2.2: Ongoing staff–proportion by age

Source: APSED

Figure 2.12 shows how young people’s representation in the APS has changed over the past decade. In the 20—24 age group, the improvement between 2001 and 2003 has almost completely been reversed in one year. For the under 20 years age group, the number of employees is much smaller, and there has been little change in their representation over the decade.

Figure 2.12: Ongoing staff–representation of young people, 1995 to 2004

Source: APSED

Figure 2.13 presents the age profile of the APS and the Australian labour force. Compared with the broader labour market, the APS has an older age profile, with a significantly lower proportion of young people, and more in the 35—54 age group. There is also a lower proportion of older workers (aged over 55 years) in the APS. In 2004, 60.9% of ongoing APS employees were aged 35—54, compared with only 45.8% of the labour force.

Figure 2.13: Age profile of ongoing APS staff and labour force, 2004

Source: APSED and ABS

Staff in the 45 and over age group, who will be eligible for retirement within the next 10 years, account for 39.3% of ongoing employees. They are more likely to be in senior classifications and, in general, have longer length of service than average. The ageing of the cohort at more senior classifications over the past 10 years is particularly pronounced. For example, 27.6% of the SES and 18.1% of EL employees were in the 50—54 age group at June 2004. This compares with only 22.2% and 12.7% at June 1995. The 55 and over age group shows a similar pattern, with the proportion of SES employees in this age group increasing from 10.5% to 16.1% over the decade. The proportion of EL employees aged 55 and over rose from 6.1% to 9.5%. Thus 43.7% of the SES and 27.6% of EL employees could, if they wished, retire with superannuation benefits within five years.

Agencies’ age profiles vary widely. This reflects, in part, the nature of an agency’s functions and classification structures. Those agencies with a relatively high proportion of staff aged over 45 may face more critical and different workforce planning and knowledge management issues than those with a younger age profile. Figure 2.14 shows comparative age profiles for ongoing employees in selected APS agencies at June 2004. The graph includes all agencies with more than 1500 ongoing staff, as well as some others with particularly young or old age profiles. It shows that there is considerable variation between agencies in the proportion of younger and older workers. For example, ANAO (13.6%), the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) (11.0%), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and Finance (both 10.2%) have a much higher proportion of their employees aged under 25 years than the overall APS average of 4.3%. Similarly, some agencies have a much older age profile with a high proportion of staff aged over 45 years, for example the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) (64.3%), Ombudsman (56.1%), DVA (54.9%) and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) (54.6%). The APS average is 39.3%.

Figure 2.14: Ongoing staff in selected agencies by age group, June 2004

Source: APSED