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Last updated: 30 November 2006

Chapter 2: Statistical snapshot

Engagements and separations

There were 20,688 engagements and 9,506 separations of ongoing employees during 2005–06. Engagements rose by 79.4% over the previous year, and separations fell by 9.8% over the same period. However, all employees of Medicare Australia, which moved into coverage of the PS Act on 1 October 2005, are considered as engagements which artificially inflates this figure. Figure 2.13 shows ongoing engagements and separations as a proportion of all ongoing employees for the past 10 years. The dotted line represents the growth in engagements including Medicare Australia and the solid line represents the growth in engagements excluding Medicare Australia.

Figure 2.13: Ongoing engagements and separations as a proportion of ongoing employees, 1996–97 to 2005–06¹²

Source: APSED

Given that Medicare Australia accounted for over one-quarter (5471 or 26.4%) of all engagements during the year, further analysis in this section excludes all engagements to Medicare Australia to avoid distortion of the trends in engagements during 2005–06. Excluding Medicare Australia, there were 15,217 engagements during 2005–06, an increase of 32.0% over the previous year.

Figure 2.14 compares the age profile of engagements and separations during 2005–06 with the age profile of the APS overall. As expected, the age profile for engagements is much younger than for the APS overall. For separations, there are two peaks—in the 25–34 and 50–54 age groups. During 2005–06, 21.0% of those who left were aged under 30 years. For further analysis of ageing trends, see Chapter 5.

Figure 2.14: Age profile of ongoing engagements and separations, 2005–06

Note: Excludes engagements to Medicare Australia
Source: APSED

Engagements

The sharp rise in engagements this year continues the fluctuating pattern for most of the past decade. However, even excluding Medicare Australia, the total number of engagements was the highest for almost 20 years.

Figure 2.15: Ongoing engagements by classification, 1996–97 to 2005–06

Note: Excludes engagements to Medicare Australia
Source: APSED

Figure 2.15 shows the proportion of engagements by classification for the past 10 years. The long-term fall in engagements at APS 1–2 classification levels has continued this year—down from 1350 in 2004–05 to 1170 in 2005–06—after reversing in the previous two financial years. The decline in engagements at these levels was not large, however the fall in proportional terms was much greater (from 11.7% of all engagements in 2004–05 to 7.7% in 2005–06). This was due to the large increase in overall engagements.

Most ‘base-grade’ recruitment is now at the APS 3–4 levels, or through Graduate and other trainee classifications. During 2005–06, engagements at APS 3–4 levels rose from 5127 to 7501, an increase of 46.3%. APS 3–4 engagements accounted for almost half of all engagements during 2005–06, more than twice the number of any other classification level.

The other classification group which grew most in proportional terms was the SES, where engagements rose from 48 in 2004–05 to 73 in 2005–06—an increase of 52.1%.

Trainee and Graduate engagements rose by 33.0% during 2005–06, remaining relatively steady as a proportion of total engagements. The agencies with the largest increase in Graduate APS recruitment were Defence (up from 29 in 2004–05 to 125 in 2005–06), DEWR (up from 64 to 120) and ABS (up from 48 to 87). The agency with the greatest decrease in Graduate APS engagements was the ATO (down from 259 in 2004–05 to 130 in 2005–06).

Engagements at APS 5–6 levels also increased strongly this year, up by 44.4%. Engagements of ELs actually fell by 1.2% (from 1349 to 1333). As a proportion of all engagements, ELs fell from 11.7% in 2004–05 to 8.8% in 2005–06.

Although data on educational qualifications is incomplete, it does show that the trend for new recruits to also be graduates has risen from around 27% twenty years ago to over 63% in 2005–06.¹³ The quality of data on educational qualifications, provided by agencies however, continues to be of concern. Agencies have provided data for only around one-quarter of those engaged during 2005–06.

Women accounted for 59.9% of engagements during 2005–06, up from 58.1% last year.

The number of ongoing engagements rose in all age groups this year. As a proportion of all engagements, however, all age groups from 35 and above fell. Figure 2.16 shows changes in the age profile of engagements for the past 10 years. The strongest growth this year was in the under 25 age group, which rose from 21.7% of all engagements during 2004–05 to 23.1% during 2005–06. Engagements in the 25–34 age group also rose proportionally, up from 36.2% to 36.6% of all engagements.This is an important development given the ageing of the APS workforce identified earlier in this chapter, and discussed further in Chapter 5.

There was a slight fall in the proportion of engagements in the 55 and over age group—the first time that this group has not risen in proportional terms since 1997–98.

The median age of engagements during 2005–06 was 31 years.

Figure 2.16: Ongoing engagements by age group, 1996–97 to 2005–06

Note: Excludes engagements to Medicare Australia
Source: APSED

Mobility between the APS and the wider labour market can be gauged by the proportion of employment opportunities filled by engagements (i.e. from outside the APS) as a proportion of opportunities filled by engagements and promotions. Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of opportunities filled by engagement—from 35.3% in 1996–97 to 51.5% in 2005–06. Excluding ‘base-grade’ recruitment—APS 1 to APS 3, Graduate APS and trainee classifications—the proportion of opportunities filled by engagement has risen from 19.9% in 1996–97 to 33.6% in 2005–06.

Last year’s report noted that the long-term trend towards filling employment opportunities by engagement had reversed for some classification levels, particularly APS 6 and EL classifications during 2004–05. This year, the trend towards engagements is again evident for these and all other classifications except for APS 2, EL 2 and SES Band 3. Growth in engagements was particularly strong for the APS 4 classification.

Re-engagement and prior service

Of the 15,217 ongoing engagements (excluding Medicare Australia) during 2005–06, 1912 (12.6%) had previously worked in the APS as ongoing employees. Of these, just over one-quarter (515) were re-engaged by the same agency in which they had previously worked. The median length of service prior to re-engagement as ongoing employees was 6.2 years.

Of these ongoing engagements who had previously also worked as ongoing employees, the majority have returned to either the same level, or one level higher or lower, than the level they were at as ongoing employees.

A total of 4666 people (30.7% of engagements) who were engaged as ongoing employees during 2005–06 had previously worked as non-ongoing employees in the APS. Of these, 3939 were engaged as ongoing employees. by the same agency in which they were previously non-ongoing. This group accounted for over one-quarter of all engagements during 2005–06—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 their ongoing engagement was 1.0 years.

These two totals include 873 people who had both non-ongoing and ongoing previous service.

A total of 9497 (62.4%) of the ongoing engagements during 2005–06 had no prior experience in the APS.¹⁴

Of the 11,802 non-ongoing employees at 30 June 2006 (including those in Medicare Australia), 2104 (17.8%) had previously worked in the APS as ongoing employees. In general, the proportion with this prior experience increased with classification, up to EL 2 level where 46.5% of non-ongoing employees had previously worked as ongoing employees. For non-ongoing SES employees, the proportion with previous ongoing experience was 39.5%. Previous ongoing experience was also high among older non- ongoing employees, with 55.3% of non-ongoing employees in the 55–59 age group and 47.2% in the 60 and over age group having previously worked as ongoing employees. These high levels of prior ongoing experience suggest that some people, especially mature-aged workers, are returning to the APS on a more flexible basis after retiring or resigning.

As was the case for ongoing engagements, most non-ongoing employees with previous ongoing experience have returned to either the same level, or one level higher or lower, than the level they were at as ongoing employees.

Separations

There were 9506 separations of ongoing employees during 2005–06, a decrease of 9.8% on the 10,540 the previous year. The decrease was mainly due to the large number of separations during 2004–05 resulting from compulsory moves to non-APS agencies. The other separation type that fell this year was retrenchments (down by 631 or 36.7%). The largest proportional increases in separations were invalidity retirements (up by 24.8%) and terminations of appointment (up by 23.5%), although these groups are both small, accounting for only 5.9% of all separations during 2005–06.

Figure 2.17 shows how the main separation types have varied over the past 10 years.

Figure 2.17: Ongoing separations, 1996–97 to 2005–06

Source: APSED

Women accounted for 55.2% of ongoing separations during 2005–06—an increase from 46.4% the previous year. They were slightly over-represented in resignations (58.0%), and under-represented in age retirements (47.3%).

The agencies with the largest number of separations were Centrelink (2048), Defence (1090) and the ATO (1049). These three agencies accounted for 44.0% of all separations.

Separations by age group for 2004–05 and 2005–06 are shown in Table 2.3. The proportion of ongoing employees in each age group at June 2005 is included for comparison.

Table 2.3: Separations of ongoing employees by age group, 2004–05 and 2005–06

	2004-05		2005-06
	No.	%	No.	%	% change 2004-05 to 2005-06	Ongoing employees at June 2006 %
Under 20	19	0.2	27	0.3	42.1	0.2
20-24	608	5.8	541	5.7	-11.0	4.2
25-29	1585	15.0	1431	15.1	-9.7	11.1
30-34	1552	14.7	1316	13.8	-15.2	13.7
35-39	1213	11.5	1085	11.4	-10.6	14.3
40-44	1191	11.3	949	10.0	-20.3	15.7
45-49	954	9.1	842	8.9	-11.7	16.0
50-54	1507	14.3	1391	14.6	-7.7	14.1
55-59	1135	10.8	1156	12.2	1.9	7.6
60+	776	7.4	768	8.1	-1.0	3.0
Total	10540	100.0	9506	100.0	-9.8	100.0
Source: APSED

Although the number of separations fell in most age groups, the fall was generally smallest in older age groups. Comparing separations to the age profile of the APS, those employees aged under 30 and those aged 55 or older separated at a higher rate than their APS representation. The 40–49 age group was particularly under-represented in separations (see Figure 2.15).

Figure 2.18 shows the proportion of employees in the 50–65 years age range that separated through resignation or retirement, for the past 10 years. The sharp rise for 54 year-olds since 1996–97 is most likely linked to the overall reduction in retrenchments since then and to the financial incentives for some members of the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) to resign just before their 55th birthday (the 54/11 effect). The relative decline in age 54 resignations during 2002–03 and the plateau during 2003–04 may be related to the lower exit rates from the CSS during some part of that period. The actual number of age 54 resignations has risen steadily for each of the past three years.

Figure 2.18: Resignation/retirement rate for selected ages, 1996–97 to 2005–06

Source: APSED

 

12. All employees of Medicare Australia who moved into coverage of the PS Act on 1 October 2005 are considered as engagements to the APS.
13. 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 for their highest educational qualification.
14. As previous service is, in part, linked through an employee’s name, it is possible that a small proportion of these people who may have changed their name had some prior experience that is not included here.

Next page: Demography of the SES leadership group

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