The Commissioner’s Directions specify that the APS Value on equity in employment requires, in particular, measures aimed at eliminating any employment-related disadvantage on the basis of:
- being an Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander
- sex
- race or ethnicity
- physical or mental disability.
With the exception of sex, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) data is supplied to agencies by individuals on a voluntary basis, and forwarded by agencies to be entered onto APSED. Overall, non-response varies widely between agencies.
The current focus on improving employment outcomes for people with disability and for Indigenous Australians in the APS provides an even greater emphasis for ensuring that the quality of data is robust. The Commission continues to work with agencies to encourage employees to provide this data to their agency’s HR system. There has been some improvement in the quality of data provided by agencies this year, however the overall quality continues to be poor and there are a number of agencies still providing little or no data on the diversity status of their employees.
For the purpose of this publication, NESB 1 and 2 are used for reporting on ‘race or ethnicity’. NESB 1 refers to people born overseas who arrived in Australia after the age of five and whose first language was not English. NESB 2 refers to children of migrants, including: those who were born overseas and arrived in Australia when they were aged five or younger and did not speak English as a first language; those who were Australian born and did not speak English as a first language and had at least one NESB 1 parent; and those people who were Australian born and had neither parent speaking English as a first language.
Figure 12 shows the change in the representation of the four EEO groups from their proportion at June 1994. Each of these proportions is weighted by the ratio of the June 1994 total ongoing APS number to the number of employees in the respective EEO group at June 1994. Weighting eliminates the effects that the changes in the overall size of the APS have on representation. The index is given a value of 100 at June 1994, and rises and falls proportionally with the particular group’s change in the weighted number over time. For example, at June 1994 the number of Indigenous Australians was 3,324 out of an ongoing APS population of 141,776. By 2008 the number of Indigenous Australians had fallen to 3,059 and the ongoing APS number had risen to 147,598. Therefore the weighted Indigenous number for 2008 is 2,938, which is 88.4% of the original index.
Figure 12: Change in population, weighted and indexed, for EEO groups, 30 June 1994 to 30 June 2008
Source: Table 46
In this section: Equal Employment Opportunity
- Ongoing staff: EEO status
- Ongoing staff: agency by EEO group
- Ongoing staff: classification by EEO group and sex
- Ongoing staff: highest educational qualification by EEO group and sex
- Engagements of ongoing staff: classification by EEO group and sex
- Separations of ongoing staff: classification by EEO group and sex