Workforce profile

The past decade has seen considerable change in the structure of the APS. The early years were characterised by a period of restructure and reduction in size and functions followed by several years of sustained growth since 2000. As well, there have been changes in the composition of the APS, particularly a shift towards a higher classification profile, higher levels of female employment and an ageing workforce.

This chapter explores demographic and structural patterns for staff employed under the Public Service Act 1999 (the Act), as well as changes over time. The main source of data for this chapter is APSED which is maintained by the Commission.¹ APSED contains information about recruitment, mobility and demographics for all ongoing and non- ongoing employees. Further information on the size and composition of the APS can be found in the Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin 2006–07. ²

1 Every effort is made to ensure the integrity of APSED data, but the Commission cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies in the data provided by agencies. The Commission undertakes extensive audits of the data and, as a result of these audits, some errors in historical data have been corrected. For this reason, caution should be exercised when comparing data presented in this report with that from earlier years. Most significantly, previously published data on employee numbers may have been revised and therefore may not be directly comparable. Due to different data sources and definitions, there may be variations between the data published here and that published by individual agencies.

2 Conceptual definitions used in workforce analysis are set out in the Introduction and Explanatory Notes to the Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin 2006–07.