Measuring the workforce

This chapter explores current demographic and structural patterns for people employed under the Public Service Act 1999 (the Act) at June 2009, as well as changes over time.¹ It focuses on overall trends in Australian Public Service (APS) employment, including size, employment status, sex, classification, age, agility of the workforce, and staff movements.

APS employment trends

There were 162,009 APS employees at June 2009, compared with 159,789 at June 2008. The total number of employees rose by 2,220 or 1.4%, much slower than growth in the previous two years of 6.3% in 2006–07 and 2.8% in 2007–08.

Figure 1.1 shows the change in total staff numbers for the past 20 years. The adjusted line takes account of coverage changes in the APS over the period, adjusting for employees and functions that moved into or out of coverage under the Act. Adjusted for coverage changes, the increase in APS employment during 2008–09 remains 1.4%.²

Those agencies with the largest growth in total employees during the year were Centrelink (an increase of 1,806 or 6.9%), the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA; 439 or 14.9%) and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA; 338 or 10.8%). Smaller agencies with large proportional increases included the Department of Climate Change (DCC; 166 or 66.7%), the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C; 108 or 20.0%), CrimTrac Agency (43 or 29.9%), and the Future Fund Management Agency (FFMA; 18 or 46.2%).

The largest decreases were in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO; 821 or 3.4%), the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA; 514 or 9.5%, mostly due to coverage changes), and the Department of Defence (Defence; 458 or 2.1%). The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) continued to contract, losing 226 employees or 9.5% of its total workforce during the year.

Ongoing and non-ongoing employees

The increase in overall employment during 2008–09 was due entirely to growth in ongoing employment, with a slight drop in non-ongoing employment in both number and as a proportion of total employment.

Ongoing employees

At June 2009, there were 150,155 ongoing employees in the APS, an increase of 2,426 or 1.6% on 2007–08. This growth continued the trend of the past 10 years, but was much lower than growth in the past two years—6.6% in 2006–07 and 2.7% in 2007–08. The number of ongoing employees in the APS is now the largest since 1975 when the Postmaster General’s Department moved out of coverage.

The largest increases in ongoing employment were in Centrelink (up by 797 or 3.1%), FaHCSIA (324 or 11.6%), and DEWHA (283 or 12.1%). Smaller agencies with large proportional increases included Climate Change (133 or 60.2%), PM&C (83 or 17.1%), CrimTrac Agency (42 or 30.2%) and FFMA (18 or 47.4%). The largest decreases in ongoing employment were in the ATO (364 or 1.6%) and Defence (344 or 1.7%).

Non-ongoing employees

The number of non-ongoing employees fell slightly this year by 206 or 1.7%, down from 12,060 at June 2008 to 11,854 at June 2009. This drop compared with increases of 2.9% in 2006–07 and 3.9% in 2007–08. Non-ongoing employees accounted for 7.3% of total employment at June 2009.

This year, the largest increases were in Centrelink (up by 1,009 or 136.0%), DEWHA (156 or 25.2%) and the Department of Human Services (DHS; 112 or 27.3%). Excluding machinery of government changes, agencies that decreased reliance on non-ongoing employment included the ATO (down by 457 or 24.2%) and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC; down by 246 or 39.2%).

Agencies with the largest number of non-ongoing employees at June 2009 were Centrelink (1,751 or 6.3% of total employees), ATO (1,433 or 6.1%) and DEWHA (774 or 22.8%).

Non-ongoing employees can be engaged in three different categories: specified term, specified task, or for duties that are irregular or intermittent. At June 2009, the majority (74.1%) were engaged for a specified term, 4.1% for a specified task, and 21.8% for irregular or intermittent duties. There is considerable variation in individual agencies’ use of the different non-ongoing categories.

The long-term trend of reduction in representation of non-ongoing employees appears to have stabilised in the past few years, despite a small drop this year. As a proportion of the total APS, non-ongoing employment has fallen from 11.1% in 1995 to 7.3% in 2009 (Figure 1.2).

At June 2009, 62.4% of non-ongoing employees were women compared with 57.5% of ongoing employees and 57.8% of total employees. While women’s overall representation grew again this year, their concentration in non-ongoing employment fell slightly.

The classification profile of non-ongoing employees has historically been concentrated at lower levels—at June 2009, 68.2% of non-ongoing employees were at APS 1–4 levels compared with 36.6% of ongoing employees. Executive Level (EL) employees are the least likely to be employed on a non-ongoing basis (3.3% compared with the APS average of 7.3%). For the Senior Executive Service (SES) cohort, the proportion is slightly higher at 4.4%. SES Band 3s (8.9%) are more likely to be non-ongoing than Band 2s (5.1%) and Band 1s (3.9%).

The age profile of non-ongoing employees is concentrated in the 20–29 years age group. There is also a second peak in the 55–59 years age group. Many in this latter group have had previous experience as ongoing employees (usually at a higher classification than their current non-ongoing status), and have chosen to return to the APS, presumably to supplement their retirement income or to remain actively engaged with the workforce. See ‘Prior service in the APS’ below for a discussion of re-engagement and prior service for ongoing employees. Close to one-quarter of non-ongoing employees (22.7%) are aged less than 25 years, compared with only 4.6% of ongoing employees. Similarly, 15.8% of non-ongoing employees are aged 55 years and over, compared with only 12.7% of ongoing employees.

Male and female employment

The long-term trend of increasing female employment in the APS continued this year. The total number of women rose from 92,012 to 93,683, an increase of 1.8%. The number of men rose from 67,777 to 68,326, an increase of 0.8%. Women now account for 57.5% of ongoing employment and 57.8% of total employment. Trends for total employment by sex are shown in Figure 1.3.

Despite growing levels of female employment across the APS, there is still considerable variation between agencies in the proportional representation of men and women. Of agencies with more than 1,000 ongoing employees, Medicare Australia (80.7%) had the highest proportion of women, followed by DHS (75.7%). Large agencies with the highest proportion of men include the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM; 76.8%) and Defence (60.3%). This year, women’s representation increased in several agencies where their representation has historically been low, including BoM (up by 1.8 percentage points for ongoing employees) and Defence (up by 0.5 percentage points).

Part-time employment

At June 2009, 12.9% of ongoing employees were working part-time, up from 12.2% last year. Women are still much more likely to work part-time, with 19.7% working part-time compared with 3.7% of men. These trends are shown in Figure 1.4.

Centrelink is the largest employer of part-time employees in the APS, with 5,493 or 28.3% of all ongoing part-time APS employees at June 2009. This group accounted for 20.9% of Centrelink’s workforce—close to twice the APS average. Other agencies with large numbers of part-time employees were ATO (2,419 or 11.0% of its ongoing workforce), DHS (1,350 or 22.1%) and Medicare Australia (1,134 or 20.3%).

Non-ongoing employees are much more likely to work part-time—32.2% of non-ongoing employees were working part-time at June 2009 compared with 12.9% of ongoing employees.

Part-time work by age

Part-time work for women is highest in the 30–44 years age group, with 27.9% of ongoing women in this age group working part-time at June 2009. For men, the proportion of this age group working part-time was 4.2%—much lower than for women but still somewhat higher than the proportion for men overall (3.7%). Older workers are more likely to work part-time (see Figure 1.5).

The trend towards part-time working arrangements for older workers continued this year, with 7.8% of ongoing employees aged 55–59 years and 10.3% of those aged 60 years and over working part-time at June 2009, (up from 7.3% and 9.5% respectively last year).

Classification structures

Table 1.1 compares ongoing employee numbers by classification at June 1995, 2008 and 2009. In the past year, numbers rose at APS 3, and at APS 5 and all higher classifications. The number of APS 1s fell by 175 or 16.8%. This reflected a large decline in the number of APS 1s employed by Medicare Australia, which is still one of the largest employers of APS 1s in the APS. Nevertheless, excluding Medicare Australia, the number of APS 1s still dropped by 5.1% during the year. Employment at APS 1 level also fell in Defence (down from 230 to 209), Centrelink (down from 105 to 94) and the ATO (down from 79 to 73). The number of ongoing trainees fell sharply, dropping from 396 at June 2008 to 246 at June 2009—a drop of 37.9% during the year. This was the lowest number of trainees for over a decade. The number of Graduate APS employees also fell this year, down by 8.5%. Changes this year confirm the long-term trend in a shift in the classification profile to higher levels, and away from the traditional APS entry levels.

For ongoing employees, the EL and SES classification levels grew strongly again in 2008–09, up by 5.7% and 5.4% respectively during 2008–09, following growth of 8.3% and 6.3% during 2007–08. The APS 6 cohort remains the largest in the APS.

Over the past 15 years, the number of ongoing employees at Trainee and APS 1–3 levels has fallen by 51.7% while the size of the APS overall has risen by 15.6%. Numbers in the Graduate APS classification have also risen during the past 15 years (up 22.4%) but numbers have varied year to year, and have fallen for the past two years. Part of the long-term decline at lower classification levels may be attributed, in part, to changes in coverage of the Act, with a relatively high proportion of employees at lower levels moving out of coverage over the past 15 years.

Table 1.1: Ongoing employees by classification, June 1995, 2008 and 2009³

Classification	1995		2008		2009		% change 2008–09	% change 1995–2009
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Source: APSED
Trainee	330	0.3	396	0.3	246	0.2	–37.9	–25.5
Grad APS	910	0.7	1217	0.8	1114	0.7	–8.5	22.4
APS 1	15695	12.1	1039	0.7	864	0.6	–16.8	–94.5
APS 2	14564	11.2	5002	3.4	4774	3.2	–4.6	–67.2
APS 3	24531	18.9	20620	14.0	20716	13.8	0.5	–15.6
APS 4	16505	12.7	29229	19.8	28550	19.0	–2.3	73.0
APS 5	16146	12.4	20566	13.9	21210	14.1	3.1	31.4
APS 6	19115	14.7	29929	20.3	30693	20.4	2.6	60.6
EL 1	12609	9.7	24806	16.8	26193	17.4	5.6	107.7
EL 2	7483	5.8	12227	8.3	12950	8.6	5.9	73.1
SES 1	1307	1.0	2027	1.4	2125	1.4	4.8	62.6
SES 2	375	0.3	536	0.4	576	0.4	7.5	53.6
SES 3	93	0.1	135	0.1	144	0.1	6.7	54.8
Total	129889	100.0	147729	100.0	150155	100.0	1.6	15.6

Women by classification

Women’s representation continued to increase this year. Women outnumber men at all classifications up to and including APS 6. Fifteen years ago, the ‘cross-over’ point was APS 4. Based on current trends, women are likely to reach equal representation at the EL 1 classification within two years, and at the SES 1 classification within 10 years.

Despite this, women continue to be under-represented at leadership levels. At June 2009, women comprised 37.0% of the SES (unchanged from 2008)⁴ and 46.0% of EL employees (up from 45.1% in 2008). Within the SES, women’s representation at SES 2 level fell slightly (from 34.9% to 34.5%). This was the first drop at that level in over 15 years. Women’s representation also fell at SES 3 (from 27.4% to 25.7%).

Figure 1.6 shows that women’s representation among promotions to EL classifications is higher than their overall representation in this group. This trend has been evident for several years, and suggests that women’s representation at these levels will continue to increase. For SES, women were under-represented in promotions—a reversal of the trend that has been evident for several years.

The number of promotions is much higher than the number of engagements for both EL and SES groups, so the long-term promotion rates for women will have more impact on their representation in these classifications than will the engagement rate.

Women’s representation in different age groups also supports the trend of greater representation for women at higher classifications. Women’s representation in both the EL and SES cohorts is higher for younger age groups than for older ones. In particular, women make up more than half of ELs aged less than 40 years.

The large agencies with the highest representation of women at higher classifications are DoHA (61.2% of SES and 63.5% of ELs are women), the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR; 55.6% and 57.0%), FaHCSIA (50.5% and 62.5%), Medicare Australia (49.2% and 51.2%) and the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD; 47.3% and 60.5%). Large agencies with the lowest representation of women at higher classifications are BoM (18.8% of SES and 17.6% of ELs are women), the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance; 20.9% and 48.1%), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury; 22.5% and 41.1%) and Defence (25.4% and 26.2%). Finance has the greatest disparity between women’s representation in the SES and in the EL feeder group, with EL representation close to the APS average and SES representation well below the APS average. Three large agencies—the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Customs and Border Protection), BoM and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)—have higher representation for women in their SES than in their EL cohort.

Workforce agility

Workforce agility is essential for ensuring that the APS can deliver the government’s reform agenda. This section of the report assesses a range of workforce agilities, and how the APS measures up against these.

Mobility within the APS

Figure 1.7 shows how mobility between agencies has varied over the past 10 years with periods of stability, growth and decline. During 2008–09, total mobility fell with a promotion rate of 0.7% and a transfer rate between agencies of 1.6% (down from 0.9% and 2.0% respectively the previous year). During the 10 years, the transfer rate has been higher than the promotion rate, with variation in the transfer rate accounting for most of the variation in total mobility over the period. Internal promotions, not shown in this figure, accounted for 93.0% of all promotions during 2008–09.

Mobility between agencies has consistently been higher for women than for men. During 2008–09, the mobility rate was 2.4% for women and 2.1% for men (down from 3.1% and 2.6% respectively during 2007–08).

In general, mobility between agencies is higher at higher classifications, and is particularly high for women in the SES. At June 2009, the proportion of women in the SES who have worked in four or more agencies was 20.4% compared with 16.4% for men. During 2008–09, the mobility rate for SES was 5.2% (down from 6.2% the previous year), 3.7% for ELs (down from 4.9%) and 1.7% for APS levels (down from 2.2%).

Educational qualifications

APSED data, while incomplete, shows that 53.8% of ongoing employees have graduate qualifications, up slightly from 53.1% last year.⁶ The proportion is higher for men than for women (57.4% compared with 50.9%).

The long-term trend is for an increase in the engagement of people who have graduate qualifications. During 2008–09, 68.1% of those engaged had graduate qualifications—up from 61.9% the previous year. This is the highest proportion since data collection began—20 years ago the proportion was around one-third.

The gap in qualifications between men and women is narrowing. The proportion of women with graduate qualifications has almost doubled in the past 20 years, while the increase for men has been around 50%.

Data for the broader labour force shows that young women are more likely than young men to have a bachelor’s degree or higher.⁷ As yet, the APS workforce profile does not reflect this, with women overall being less likely to have graduate qualifications at all age groups.

Length of service

The median length of service in the APS at June 2009 was eight years for ongoing employees, unchanged from the previous year. Figure 1.8 shows the profile of length of service over the past 15 years. The proportion of employees with fewer than five years’ service has plateaued in the past two years, after rising for several years. As a proportion of all ongoing employees, this cohort has risen from 28.0% 10 years ago to 36.4% at June 2009. The proportion of employees with 30 or more years’ service has remained relatively steady over the past decade, and was 4.4% at June 2009.

Cross-agency experience⁸

The Management Advisory Committee report, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce⁹, noted the importance of ensuring a depth of experience and exposure in the SES. One way of measuring broad experience is by looking at the number of agencies APS employees have worked in. Table 1.2 shows the number of agencies worked in by classification group at June 2009, and compares that with data for June 2000. It shows that all classification groups in 2009 have worked in fewer agencies than had their equivalent cohort in 2000. The decline is particularly evident at EL classifications, where the proportion that have worked in four or more agencies has halved (from 9.6% to 4.8%) over the period.

As would be expected, the number of agencies worked in increases at higher classification levels—similar to mobility between agencies. Fewer than half of current SES have worked in only one agency (45.4%) compared with 68.4% of ELs and 87.3% of APS level employees. Almost one in five SES (17.9%) have worked in four or more agencies, compared with only 4.8% of ELs and 0.7% of APS level employees.

Table 1.2: Ongoing employees—number of agencies worked in, 2000 and 2009

Classification	One agency		2–3 agencies		4 or more agencies
	2000	2009	2000	2009	2000	2009
Source: APSED
APS	79.0	87.3	19.2	12.0	1.9	0.7
EL	59.2	68.4	31.2	26.7	9.6	4.8
SES	37.4	45.4	39.4	36.7	23.2	17.9
All	74.8	81.7	21.6	16.2	3.7	2.1

Prior service in the APS

Of the 12,963 ongoing engagements during 2008–09, 1,661 (12.8%) had previously worked as ongoing employees. Of these, over one-quarter (442) were re-engaged by the same agency in which they had previously worked. The median length of service prior to re- engagement was 6.2 years.

A total of 4,772 (36.8%) engagements had previously worked as non-ongoing employees in the APS. Of these, 3,936 were engaged by the same agency in which they had been employed previously on a non-ongoing basis. This demonstrates that non-ongoing employment continues to be a major entry point into the APS. The median length of service as a non-ongoing employee prior to ongoing engagement was 0.9 years. A total of 5,637 (43.5% of total engagements) had some prior experience in the APS.

Of the 11,854 non-ongoing employees at June 2009, 1,977 (16.7%) had worked previously in the APS as ongoing employees. In general, the proportion of employees with this prior experience increased with level up to EL 2 where 48.7% of non-ongoing employees had previously worked as ongoing employees. For non-ongoing SES the proportion was 42.3%. Previous ongoing experience was also high among older non-ongoing employees, with 49.1% of non-ongoing employees aged 55–59 years and 47.5% of those aged 60 years and over having previously worked as ongoing employees.

Type of work

Many different types of work are performed in the APS. This year the number of APS employees indicating they worked in service delivery dropped to 20% (down from 24% in 2008). The proportion working in corporate services was 21% (up slightly from 20% last year). Information Technology (IT) accounted for 7% of all employees, and 31% of employees working in corporate services. For SES and EL employees, over one-third of those working in corporate services indicated that they worked in IT.

Other types of work included policy (12%, up from 10% last year), exercising regulatory authority (11%, down from 13% last year), and program design and/or management (11%, up from 9.0% last year). Table 1.3 shows how the type of work performed across the APS varies by classification. APS 1–6 employees are most likely to be working in roles where they deliver services to the public; EL employees are most likely to be working in corporate services; and SES employees are in policy or program design and/or management roles.

Table 1.3: Employee identified type of work by classification, 2009¹⁰

	Classification
	APS 1–6 %	EL %	SES %	Total %
Source: Employee survey
Policy (e.g. development, review and/or evaluation)	9	20	38	12
Research	5	10	4	6
Programme design and/or management	9	20	21	11
Service delivery to the general public (e.g. call centres, shopfront/counter service)	26	3	4	20
Exercising regulatory authority	12	9	6	11
Legal (including developing and/or reviewing legislation)	2	5	7	3
Corporate services—IT	6	10	6	7
Corporate services—other	15	17	12	15
Administrative support/clerical (e.g. executive/personal assistant)	12	1	0	9
Other	5	4	3	5

Age profile

At June 2009, the median age of ongoing employees was 42 years (44 years for men and 40 years for women). This was unchanged from the previous four years. The largest group is aged between 45 and 49 years. Over one-quarter of ongoing employees (26.9%) are now aged 50 years or over, and 12.7% are aged 55 years or over, up from 25.9% and 11.9% respectively last year.

Representation of young people (i.e. those aged under 25 years) fell again this year. At June 2009, 4.6% of ongoing employees were in this age group—0.2% were aged less than 20 years and 4.4% were in the 20 to 24 years age group. This was the second year of decrease, after two years of relatively strong proportional growth for this cohort.

Older age groups had the largest proportional growth in ongoing employment this year, with the 60 years and over age group increasing by 14.8% and the 55 to 59 years age group increasing by 5.4%, compared with the increase for the APS overall of 1.6%. The 55 and over age group has more than doubled as a proportion of all ongoing employees in the past 15 years, rising from 5.4% in 1995 to 12.7% this year. This strong growth in the number of older workers reflects the impact of policies to encourage older, skilled workers to either remain in the APS or to return after taking early retirement. It also reflects the removal of compulsory age 65 retirement in 1999, which resulted in increased recruitment of older workers since then. Further information on the age profile of engagements to the APS can be found later in this chapter.

The ageing of the cohort at EL and SES classifications over time is particularly evident: for example, at June 2009, 13.0% of ongoing ELs and 18.9% of SES were aged 55 and over, compared with 6.2% and 10.8% in 1995. Table 1.4 shows the proportion of ongoing employees in 10-year age groups, at June 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009.

Table 1.4: Ongoing employees by age group, 1997 to 2009

	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009
Source: APSED
Under 25	5.4	4.2	5.0	4.5	4.6
25–34	28.3	26.1	26.0	24.9	24.4
35–44	34.0	33.5	31.4	30.0	28.4
45–54	26.6	29.6	29.3	30.1	29.9
55 and over	5.7	6.6	8.3	10.6	12.7
Median age	39	40	41	42	42

While recruitment of young people has fallen over time, this does not seem to have strongly skewed the age profile of the APS. The APS is becoming more middle-aged than old. The challenge for agencies is to attract and retain workers across the age ranges. Older workers are more likely to be working at higher classification levels and, in general, have longer lengths of service, compared with the average. Agencies need to implement workforce planning and succession strategies for the future (see Chapter 3 for a discussion of these issues).

The APS has a more middle-aged age profile than the Australian labour force, with a much lower proportion of young people, and relatively more staff in the 35–54 years age group— at June 2009, 58.3% of ongoing employees were in this age group compared with only 44.6% of the Australian labour force.¹¹ Despite the continuing growth in older workers in the APS—those aged 60 years and over—they are still under-represented compared with the broader labour force. These patterns are shown in Figure 1.9.

There is substantial variation in agencies’ age profiles. Those agencies with a relatively high proportion of older employees may face more critical and different workforce planning and knowledge management issues than those with a younger age profile. Of the agencies with more than 1,000 ongoing employees, DVA and BoM have the oldest age profiles, with 59.7% and 56.6% respectively aged 45 years and over: almost one-quarter of DVA’s ongoing employees (23.3%) are aged 55 years and over. In contrast, Treasury (28.3%) and AGD (30.9%) have the lowest proportion of staff aged 45 years and over.

Location

Over one-third of APS employees (37.4% of ongoing employees and 37.5% of all employees) are located in the ACT. There has been a steady rise in this proportion for several years—in 1995 it was 31.1%.

The proportion of employees located in the ACT increases at higher classifications. For example, at June 2009, 61.4% of all EL employees and 75.4% of all SES employees were in Canberra compared with only 16.9% of all APS 1–2 and 17.4% of all APS 3–4 employees. Table 1.5 shows the classification profile, by location, for ongoing employees at June 2009.

Table 1.5: Ongoing employees—proportion by classification and location, June 2009

Classification	ACT %	NSW %	Vic %	Qld %	SA %	WA %	Tas %	NT %	OS %	Total %
Source: APSED
APS 1–2	14.1	29.5	21.0	15.9	6.7	6.6	2.6	3.2	0.3	100.0
APS 3–4	15.5	26.9	21.0	15.9	7.4	7.4	3.8	1.8	0.2	100.0
APS 5–6	39.7	18.1	15.7	10.8	6.1	5.0	2.3	1.8	0.6	100.0
EL	61.3	10.3	11.2	6.3	4.6	2.6	1.1	0.9	1.7	100.0
SES	75.3	5.6	6.2	2.6	1.5	1.4	0.7	0.5	6.2	100.0
Trainee/Grad APS	69.3	6.7	11.2	5.4	2.9	2.5	1.0	1.0	0.1	100.0
Total APS	37.4	19.1	16.2	11.3	6.0	5.1	2.5	1.6	0.8	100.0

There is some variation among agencies in the level of employment inside and outside the ACT. At June 2009, 13 out of 102 agencies had no employees in the ACT, 30 had all of their employees in the ACT, and 27 had fewer than one-third of their employees in the ACT. Large agencies in the latter group included DVA (30.0%), Customs and Border Protection (26.5%), Medicare Australia (20.9%), ATO (14.1%), DHS (11.2%), Centrelink (10.8%), BoM (2.8%) and ASIC (0.9%).

Engagements and separations

There were 12,963 engagements and 10,460 separations of ongoing employees during 2008–09. The number of engagements included 354 ongoing employees who moved into coverage of the Act. Engagements fell by 19.3% from the previous year, and separations fell by 14.1%. The number of engagements has fallen for each of the past three years.

The number (and rate) of separations has been relatively steady over most of the past decade. Figure 1.10 shows ongoing engagements and separations as a proportion of all ongoing employees for the past 15 years.

Engagements

The long-term pattern of ongoing engagements has been erratic, with periods of sharp growth followed by years of decline.

During 2008–09, ongoing engagements overall fell by 19.3%. There were falls in all classifications below EL 1, in particular recruitment at trainee classifications (including Graduate APS) fell by 28.8% during the year. This was the second year in a row that Graduate APS recruitment fell, although the decline was less than that for APS engagements overall. In contrast, there was strong growth at SES levels (up by 37.5%).

Figure 1.11 shows the proportion of engagements by classification group for the past 15 years. It confirms the long-term decline in engagements at the APS 1–2 levels. This year’s data confirmed the levelling out of APS 1–2 engagements at around 10% of all ongoing engagements. Engagements at APS 3–4 levels fell slightly this year, but this group still accounts for close to half of all ongoing engagements to the APS.

Women accounted for 59.8% of all ongoing engagements during 2008–09, down slightly from the previous year (61.1%). Despite the decrease, female representation has increased over the longer term—in 1994–95 it was 52.8%.

Engagements fell across all age groups except the 60 years and over group. The strongest falls during 2008–09 were in the 35–39, 40–44 and 45–49 years age groups (down by 24.4%, 22.5% and 25.3% respectively). However, for the 60 years and over age group, engagements rose by 2.9%. There has been a steady rise in engagements of older workers since removal of compulsory age 65 retirement in 1999. The median age of engagements during 2008–09 was 31 years (33 years for men and 30 years for women). This was a decrease from 32 years for the past five years, except for 2005–06 when the move of Medicare into the APS skewed the engagement data.

Centrelink (2,711 or 20.9%) and Defence (1,208 or 9.3%) accounted for almost one-third of all engagements during the year. The number of ongoing engagements to the ATO (617) fell significantly, and accounted for around half of the total drop in engagements for the year.

Mobility between the APS and the wider labour market can be gauged by measuring the proportion of external engagements (i.e. from outside the APS) as a proportion of total engagements and promotions (i.e. from inside the APS). During 2008–09, 46.5% of these employment opportunities were filled by external engagement. This was an increase from the previous year (42.5%) but still lower than the two years prior—57.8% in 2005–06 (influenced by Medicare Australia coming into coverage of the Act) and 51.4% in 2006–07. Excluding ‘base-grade’ recruitment—the APS 1 to APS 3, Graduate APS and Trainee classifications—the proportion of opportunities filled by external engagement during 2008–09 was 32.0%, somewhat higher than 28.2% the previous year.

While the number of engagements fell significantly during 2008–09, the number of promotions fell even more, by 31.5% during the year. The number of promotions fell in most agencies. Promotions within an agency accounted for 93.0% of all promotions during 2008–09, down slightly from 93.8% the previous year.

Separations

There were 10,460 separations of ongoing staff during 2008–09, a decrease of 14.1% on the 12,176 separations the previous year. The overall separation rate for the APS during 2008–09 was 7.0%—down from 8.4% during 2007–08.

There was a 26.1% drop in the number of resignations (down from 8,785 in 2007–08 to 6,490 in 2008–09). The only separation type that increased was retrenchment (up by 109.6%, from 811 in 2007–08 to 1,700 in 2008–09)—the largest since 2004–05.

Figure 1.12 shows how the main separation types have varied over the past 15 years. In general, resignations and retrenchments show an inverse relationship—resignations are low in those years where retrenchments are high. Age retirements have steadily increased as a proportion of total separations over the period reflecting, in part, the growing proportion of employees eligible for retirement. Age retirements have risen from 3.3% of all ongoing separations in 1997–98 to 16.2% in 2008–09.

Separations by age group for 2007–08 and 2008–09 are shown in Table 1.6. The proportion of ongoing employees in each age group at June 2009 is included for comparison. The number of separations fell in all age groups, except the 55–59 years age group. Comparing separations to the age profile of the APS, those aged less than 30 years and those aged 55 years and over separated at a higher rate than their APS representation.

Table 1.6: Separations of ongoing employees by age group, 2007–08 and 2008–09

Age group	2007–08		2008–09		% change 2007–08 to 2008–09	Ongoing employees at June 2009
	No.	%	No.	%
Source: APSED
Under 20	64	0.5	38	0.4	–40.6	0.2
20–24	841	6.9	688	6.6	–18.2	4.4
25–29	1919	15.8	1464	14.0	–23.7	11.4
30–34	1629	13.4	1342	12.8	–17.6	13.0
35–39	1538	12.6	1227	11.7	–20.2	14.4
40–44	1124	9.2	972	9.3	–13.5	14.0
45–49	1037	8.5	906	8.7	–12.6	15.7
50–54	1691	13.9	1481	14.2	–12.4	14.2
55–59	1118	9.2	1199	11.5	7.2	8.3
60 and over	1215	10.0	1143	10.9	–5.9	4.4
Total	12176	100.0	10460	100.0	–14.1	100.0

The agencies with the largest number of ongoing separations during the year were Centrelink (1,782), Defence (1,538) and ATO (921). These three agencies accounted for 40.5% of all ongoing separations, somewhat lower than their combined 45.8% of ongoing APS employment.

Women accounted for 56.1% of ongoing separations during 2008–09, up slightly from 55.7% the previous year, but lower than their overall representation in the APS (57.5% of ongoing staff at June 2009). Women were over-represented in resignations (59.9%) but under-represented in all other separation types.

Key chapter findings

The APS continued to grow this year, although more slowly than in the past few years. Growth was concentrated in areas of government priorities—dealing with emerging global issues.

The year saw further consolidation of several long-term trends—a shift to higher classification profiles and a more qualified and experienced workforce. Of some concern is the reduction in all classification groups of cross-agency experience in recent years.

Representation of women continued to grow, including at higher classifications, although that growth slowed somewhat this year.

Employment of young people dropped again this year. As noted in last year’s report, it is important that agencies continue to attract younger employees.

The ‘typical’ new starter in the APS this year is a 31-year-old female, with graduate qualifications, engaged at the APS 3 level. The ‘typical’ APS employee is a 42-year-old female, with graduate qualifications, working at the APS 6 level.

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