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APS at a glance - All Staff
At 30 June 2005 there were 133,596 staff in the APS. This total comprised:
- 123,242 ongoing staff (up by 0.8% from 122,305 in June 2004)
- 10,354 non-ongoing staff (up by 13.9% from 9091 in June 2004).
- 11,424 ongoing employees were engaged (up by 22.6% from 9315 in 2003–04)
- 10,482 ongoing employees separated from the APS (up by 44.2% from 7270 in 2003–04)
- 122 ongoing employees moved into coverage of the PS Act
- 1361 ongoing employees moved out of coverage of the PS Act.
Figure 1: All staff by employment category and sex, June 2005
Size of the Australian Public Service
At June 2005 there were 133,596 staff in the Australian Public Service employed under the PS Act. Of this number 123,242 were ongoing and 10,354 were non-ongoing. Table 1 shows ongoing and non-ongoing employee numbers by sex from June 1991 to June 2005.
During 2004–05, 1361 employees moved out of coverage of the PS Act and 122 moved into coverage. Coverage changes for the last 15 years are set out in Appendix 4.
The largest increases in ongoing staff numbers were in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) (1094 or 5.3%) and in the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (933 or 20.4%). The largest reductions in ongoing staff numbers were in Defence (641 or 3.5%) and Centrelink (513 or 2.1%).
Non-ongoing employment in the ATO and Centrelink had increased by 605 and 384 respectively. These two agencies account for more than half of the increase in non-ongoing employees during the past year.
Appendix 4 ‘PS Act coverage changes’ and Appendix 5 ‘Changes to Administrative Arrangements, 2004–05’ should be carefully noted when examining tables that compare agency numbers from one year to the next.
Size of agencies
The 10 agencies listed in Table A accounted for over three-quarters of total APS staff (ongoing and non-ongoing) at June 2005. The ranking of the three largest agencies has remained unchanged for the last six years. These three account for over half of all APS staff.
Table A: Ten largest agencies (ongoing and non-ongoing staff), June 2005
| Agency | No. of staff at June 2005 | % of total APS staff |
| Centrelink | 25317 | 19.0 |
| Australian Taxation Office | 23417 | 17.5 |
| Defence | 18638 | 14.0 |
| Immigration | 5769 | 4.3 |
| Australian Customs Services | 5054 | 3.8 |
| Health and Ageing | 4220 | 3.2 |
| Child Support Agency | 3238 | 2.4 |
| DEWR | 3141 | 2.4 |
| Australian Bureau of Statistics | 3095 | 2.3 |
| AQIS | 3028 | 2.3 |
| Total | 94917 | 71.0 |
Source: Table 1
Ongoing staff
Composition
At June 2005 ongoing employees accounted for 92.2% of the APS, a 0.9 percentage point decrease in their representation from the previous year.
The proportion of ongoing employees working part-time continued to rise, increasing from 11.2% last year to 11.3% at June 2005. (Non-ongoing employees were even more likely to work part-time, at 23.9% at June 2005.)
Classification
Fifteen years ago the APS 3–4 and APS 5–6 classification groups accounted for almost equal proportions of ongoing staff with 23.3% and 23.9% respectively. The proportion of the APS 1–2 classification group was much higher at 35.3%. By June 2005, the APS 1–2 level had fallen to just 5.2% of all ongoing employees. Over the same period, the proportion of staff at the APS 3–4 and APS 5–6 levels rose, with each group now accounting for over a third of all ongoing staff.
Representation of Executive Level (EL) employees has risen from 13.2% to 22.5% over the last 15 years, while the size of the Senior Executive Service (SES) has fl uctuated between 1.3% and 1.6% and is currently 1.6%. At June 2005, trainees and graduate trainees accounted for 0.9% of ongoing staff. It should be noted that the number of graduate trainees does not represent the number of graduates recruited: the majority of these are recruited to all levels from outside the APS. During 2004–05, 66.7% of ongoing employees engaged were graduates. 1
Figure 2 below shows the change in the number of employees by classification as a proportion of total ongoing employees over the last 15 years.
Figure 2: Ongoing employees by classification group, June 1991 to June 2005
Source: Table 8
Senior Executive Service
The composition of the SES has generally remained stable over the last 15 years. At June 2005, SES Band 1 employees comprised over three quarters of the SES (75.5%), SES Band 2, 19.9% and SES Band 3, 4.7%.
The major change in the SES over the last 15 years has been the steady increase in the representation of women, from 12.8% in June 1991 to 33.0% in June 2005. This trend is also evident in each of the SES bands, although women are still concentrated at lower levels, with 81.3% of SES women at Band 1, compared with 72.6% of SES men.
Figure 3: Ongoing employees, proportion of women by SES band, June 1991 to June 2005
Source: Table 8
Age
The median age of ongoing APS employees has risen to 42 years, after being steady at 41 years for the previous two years. The number of employees in the under 25 age group fell slightly during 2004–05. Over the 15 years to June 2005 this group’s representation has fallen from 11.1% to 4.0% of all ongoing employees.
The strongest growth in recent years has been in the representation of older age groups. Employees in the 45–54 age group represented 17.4% of all employees 15 years ago, and now represent 30.3%. Similarly, the 55 and over age group has increased from 5.7% to 10.1% over the past 15 years.
Sex
Over the past 15 years women’s representation in the APS has increased from 46.0% to 54.2%. In general, women are still employed at lower classifi cation levels than men, but the gap is decreasing. Fifteen years ago, 72.6% of women were in the APS1–4 group, but this had decreased to 48.9% at June 2005. For men, 46.7% were in the APS1–4 group 15 years ago, compared with 31.6% at June 2005. Changes in women’s representation by classification over the past 15 years are shown in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4: Ongoing employees, proportion of women in selected classification groups, June 1991 to June 2005
Source: Table 8
Location
Two-thirds of APS staff are located outside Canberra. There was a slight increase in the proportion of ACT-based ongoing staff (from 34.1% to 34.9%) in the year to June 2005.
The following table shows the distribution of ongoing staff by location.
Table B: Ongoing staff by location, June 2005
| State/Territory | No. of staff | % of APS staff |
| Australian Capital Territory | 42963 | 34.9 |
| New South Wales | 24444 | 19.8 |
| Victoria | 20510 | 16.6 |
| Queensland | 15032 | 12.2 |
| South Australia | 7559 | 6.1 |
| Western Australia | 7270 | 6.0 |
| Tasmania | 2847 | 2.3 |
| Northern Territory | 1720 | 1.4 |
| Overseas | 897 | 0.7 |
| Total | 123,242 | 100.0 |
Source: Table 11
Engagements
Over the 2004–05 fi nancial year, there were 11,424 engagements of ongoing employees, an increase of 2109 from 9315 in the previous financial year. The Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink and Defence made up 39.4% of ongoing engagements.
Men comprised 42.0% of ongoing engagements, on par with 42.1% the previous year.
Of the people engaged in 2004–05, 43.3% had prior service in the APS: 41.1% of men and 44.8% of women. Thirty-one per cent of the people who had prior service in the APS were engaged in 2004–05 at the APS 3 level.
Fifteen years ago, 55.4% of engagements were at the APS1–2 level; in 2004–05, this had dropped to 11.7%. In contrast, the APS 3–4 group increased from 12.2% to 44.5% over the same period. This classifi cation group now accounts for most ‘base-level’ recruitment. Figure 5 below shows the proportion of engagements by classification over the last 15 years.
Figure 5: Ongoing engagements: proportion in selected classification groups, 1990–91 to 2004–05
Source: Table 24
Separations
There were 10,482 separations of ongoing staff in 2004–05. This was an increase of 3212 (or 44.2%) over last year’s fi gure of 7270. Resignations were the most common form of separation in both years. As a proportion of all separations, resignations have decreased from 60.3% in 1990-91 to 53.9% in 2004–05. There has, however, been considerable variation over the 15 years. This is shown in Figure 6 below.
Figure 6: Ongoing employees: selected separations as a proportion of total separations, 1990–91 to 2004–05
Women accounted for 56.4% of resignations. Of people resigning the greatest proportion (19.3%) have been working in the APS for three to five years.
Over one third (35.6%) of men who took an age retirement had been employed for over 30 years in comparison with 7.4% of women. This shows that the marriage bar–removed in 1967–still has some impact on the structure of the APS.
The overall separation rate is calculated as the total number of separations during the financial year divided by the average number of employees at 30 June 2004 and 30 June 2005. During 2004–05 the separation rate was 8.5%. This value cannot be compared with a similar measure at agency level as the former does not take into account movements of employees between agencies. The agency retention rates in table 12should be used at agency level when assessing agency ‘turnover’.
Educational qualifications2
Of those ongoing employees who have supplied information about their educational qualifications, 49.9% have a bachelor degree or higher. Men are more likely than women to have graduate qualifications–51.8% compared with 48.0% for women. Indigenous employees are less likely to have graduate qualifi cations and NESB 1 employees are much more likely (25.5% and 71.4% respectively). Those with a disability are somewhat less likely to have graduate qualifications compared with the APS overall–41.5%.
Figure 7: Ongoing employees: EEO group by educational qualifications, June 2005
1 The method used to calculate the proportion of employees with graduate or tertiary qualifications includes those with qualifications at bachelor degree and above. It excludes from the denominator those for whom no data was provided by agencies, and those who chose not to provide details of their highest educational qualification
2 The method used to calculate the proportion of employees with graduate or tertiary qualifications includes those with qualifications at bachelor degree and above. It excludes from the denominator those for whom no data was provided by agencies, and those who chose not to provide details of their highest educational qualification.
