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Age profile

At June 2007, the median age of ongoing employees was 42 years (44 years for men and 40 years for women). This was unchanged from the previous year, but considerably higher than the 38 year median in 1995. The largest age group is the 45–49 years age group, followed by 40–44. Over one-quarter of all ongoing employees are now aged 50 or over (25.2%) and over 10% are aged 55 or over.

This is the second consecutive year that the representation of young people (i.e. those aged under 25) has risen proportionally, up from 4.0% at June 2005 to 4.5% at June 2006 and 5.0% at June 2007. The number in the under 20 years age group grew by 32.6% this year, compared with the APS average growth rate for ongoing employees of 6.5% and the number in the 20–24 years age group increased by 17.6%. This result is encouraging, but it is too early to suggest that the long-term decline in the employment of young people has been reversed.

There was also substantial growth in the number of older workers with the 55 years and over age group increasing by 12.7%. This age group now accounts for 11.2% of all ongoing employees, up from 10.6% last year.

The ageing of the cohort in more senior classifications is particularly evident. At June 2007, for example, 11.7% of ELs and 18.4% of the SES were aged 55 years and over compared with 6.5% and 12.5% in 1998.

The increases this year in the proportion of younger, mature-aged and older workers reflect both agencies’ efforts to increase the engagement into the APS of young, talented people, and the impact of changes in policies to encourage older, skilled workers to either remain in the APS or to return after taking early retirement.

Table 2.4 shows the proportion of ongoing employees in 10-year age groups, at June 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Over this period, the median age of the APS has risen, on average, one year for every three years. The largest increase has been in the 55 years, and over age group, which has more than doubled its proportional representation (from 5.4% at June 1995 to 11.2% at June 2007). The largest age group is now the 45 to 54 years, group, which has increased from 23.4% of all ongoing employees in 1995 to 29.8% in 2007.

Overall, the APS has an older age profile than the Australian labour force, with a much lower proportion of young people and more in the 35–54 years age group—at June 2007, 58.9% of ongoing employees were aged 35–54 years compared with only 44.9% of the Australian labour force.¹⁴ Despite the large increase in representation for those aged 55 years and over, however, they are still under-represented—11.2% compared with 14.8% for the labour force.

The ageing of the APS workforce continues to raise significant workforce planning and succession management challenges. Employees in the 45 years and over age group, who will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, account for 41.0% of ongoing employees. This group’s representation has risen steadily over time, up from 40.7% last year and 33.9% in 1998. For EL and SES employees the proportions are even higher: 48.6% of ELs and 71.3% of SES are aged 45 years or over (up from 46.2% and 69.5% in 1998).

This year, growth was especially strong in the 60 years and over age group. This cohort has grown from 3,412 ongoing employees at June 2005 to 4,031 last year and 5,027 in June 2007. As a proportion of all ongoing employees, the 60 years and over age group has increased from 1.6% in June 1993 to 3.5% at June 2007. Almost 40% of these employees have 20 or more years of service, and 17.3% have 30 or more years of service.

There is substantial variation in agencies’ age profiles. Those agencies with a relatively high proportion of employees aged 45 years and over may face more critical and different workforce planning and knowledge management issues than those with a younger age profile.

14 ABS, Australian Labour Market Statistics, Cat. No. 6105.0, July 2007, ABS, Canberra.