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REPRESENTATION OF EEO GROUPS

There was a rise in the absolute numbers and proportion of ongoing women and NESB1 staff employed in the APS between June 2003 and June 2004. The number and proportion of ongoing employees with a disability was stable. Both the proportion and absolute numbers of Indigenous Australians decreased. The proportional representation of women, Indigenous Australians, people with a disability, and people from a non-English speaking background as at June of each of the last 10 years is presented in Table 8.2.

Table 8.2: Representation of EEO groups among ongoing employees

Source: APSED

Trends in representation for each of these groups are discussed in the following sections.

Changes in the classification profile of the APS are likely to have contributed to changes in the representation of women, Indigenous Australians, people with a disability and people from a NESB (referred to in this chapter as EEO groups).² Employment opportunities have fallen in traditional entry-level administrative roles, where a larger proportion of EEO groups and younger workers have previously been concentrated. This change in the classification profile of the APS reflects a shift over time in how the APS does business. For example, in the 1970s a large proportion of APS employees were engaged in base-grade entry level positions to provide administrative or technical support services. These positions have, in many cases, yielded to technological change, outsourcing or other productivity measures. This issue is discussed further in Chapter 9.

2 In the absence of alternative measures, the concept ‘NESB’, representing people from a non-English speaking background, is used with APSED to capture issues relating to racial and ethnic diversity. This captures information about first language spoken, place of birth and parental heritage. NESB1, the measure used here, includes people born overseas whose first language was not English and who arrived in Australia after the age of five. NESB2 has been reported in State of the Service reports prior to 2002—03, in addition to NESB1, and includes children of migrants, including those who were born overseas and arrived in Australia before the age of five and did not speak English as a first language, those who were Australian born but did not speak English as a first language and had at least one NESB parent, and those who were Australian born and had neither parent speaking English as a first language. Analysis of APSED data has found that this group does not have a substantial employment disadvantage compared to other workers, and it therefore is not reported here.