Introduction
The NSW public sector is the largest employer in Australia, accounting for almost 10% of employment in the state. As such, it has a large impact on the NSW workforce. While most roles are in metropolitan areas, the NSW public sector employs many people in regional areas and handles a significant proportion of all employment in regional NSW.1
In 2019, 58.2% of NSW public sector employees worked in Sydney (Sydney East and Sydney West combined), with the remaining 41.8% spread across the rest of NSW (see Figure 11.1). The distribution of employees between Sydney and regional areas2 marginally favoured the latter when compared to the geographical distribution of the resident population of NSW, with an estimated 38.8% of people in NSW living in regional areas.
Figure 11.1 NSW public sector employees by region, census headcount, 2019
Region | Public sector employees, census headcount | Representation by region (%) |
---|---|---|
Hunter Valley excl. Newcastle | 11,431 | 2.8 |
Mid North Coast | 11,028 | 2.7 |
New England & North West | 11,112 | 2.7 |
Far West & Orana | 10,428 | 2.6 |
Coffs Harbour – Grafton | 8,229 | 2.0 |
Richmond – Tweed | 12,506 | 3.1 |
Capital Region | 11,059 | 2.7 |
Riverina | 9,757 | 2.4 |
Murray | 5,836 | 1.4 |
Central West | 14,341 | 3.5 |
Sydney regions
Work Region | Public sector employees, headcount at census | Representation by region (%) |
---|---|---|
Sydney East | 134,675 | 33.3 |
Sydney West | 101,196 | 25.0 |
Central Coast | 16,343 | 4.0 |
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie | 24,600 | 6.1 |
Illawarra | 16,373 | 4.0 |
Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven | 6,066 | 1.5 |
Regional profiles
Key statistics for each region are displayed in Table 11.1, and the distribution of census FTE by region and service is shown in Table 11.2. In 2019, regional NSW accounted for 40.4% of FTE, while Sydney East and Sydney West together accounted for 59.6%. In line with previous years, the distribution of Public Service and other Crown services employees between Sydney and regional NSW mirrored that of the general NSW population. The NSW Health Service and the NSW Teaching Service had higher proportions of employees in regional areas compared to the general population, while the NSW Police Force and the Transport Service had higher proportions of employees in the Sydney region.
Work Region | Estimated resident population | Census period FTE 2018 | Census period FTE 2019 | Change census period FTE 2018 to 2019 (%) | Median age (years) | Median salary non–casual ($) | Median tenure non–casual (years in agency) | Part–time non–casual (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Capital Region | 227,969 | 8,429 | 8,892 | 5.5 | 47 | $85,066 | 9.9 | 34.8 |
Central Coast | 342,095 | 12,833 | 13,258 | 3.3 | 45 | $86,033 | 9.6 | 34.1 |
Central West | 212,648 | 11,352 | 11,775 | 3.7 | 45 | $83,403 | 9.3 | 30.4 |
Coffs Harbour – Grafton | 141,212 | 6,481 | 6,687 | 3.2 | 47 | $86,567 | 10.0 | 36.2 |
Far West & Orana | 117,331 | 8,476 | 8,722 | 2.9 | 43 | $79,586 | 8.2 | 26.1 |
Hunter Valley excl. Newcastle | 277,105 | 8,584 | 9,262 | 7.9 | 44 | $83,136 | 9.8 | 33.4 |
Illawarra | 311,193 | 12,119 | 12,440 | 2.6 | 45 | $87,926 | 11.4 | 31.0 |
Mid North Coast | 220,713 | 8,730 | 9,014 | 3.3 | 47 | $86,641 | 10.4 | 34.5 |
Murray | 120,169 | 4,345 | 4,545 | 4.6 | 46 | $83,918 | 9.2 | 39.6 |
New England & North West | 186,864 | 8,737 | 9,094 | 4.1 | 45 | $83,136 | 9.1 | 33.9 |
Newcastle & Lake Macquarie | 375,931 | 18,667 | 19,503 | 4.5 | 45 | $87,926 | 10.0 | 33.9 |
Richmond – Tweed | 250,989 | 9,526 | 9,822 | 3.1 | 48 | $87,926 | 10.7 | 42.6 |
Riverina | 161,100 | 7,734 | 7,963 | 3.0 | 44 | $83,136 | 8.4 | 32.2 |
Southern Highlands & Shoalhaven | 154,687 | 4,659 | 4,825 | 3.6 | 47 | $83,136 | 9.8 | 37.4 |
Sydney West | 2,160,153 | 81,647 | 86,112 | 5.5 | 42 | $87,926 | 8.6 | 22.7 |
Sydney East | 2,728,082 | 111,564 | 113,876 | 2.1 | 43 | $90,236 | 7.2 | 21.8 |
* 4.6% of employee records in the workforce profile were missing the postcode and/or suburb in 2019.
Work Region | Public Service | NSW Health Service | NSW Police Force | Teaching Service | Transport Service | Other Crown services | Government sector | State owned corporations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Capital Region | 1,656 | 2,793 | 657 | 2,307 | 200 | 911 | 8,525 | 367 |
Central Coast | 2,133 | 5,917 | 762 | 2,957 | 125 | 1,363 | 13,258 | 0 |
Central West | 2,985 | 3,963 | 552 | 2,244 | 184 | 1,440 | 11,368 | 407 |
Coffs Harbour – Grafton | 1,182 | 2,434 | 277 | 1,370 | 390 | 762 | 6,414 | 273 |
Far West & Orana | 2,028 | 2,792 | 533 | 1,699 | 243 | 1,038 | 8,333 | 390 |
Hunter Valley excl. Newcastle | 2,315 | 2,086 | 472 | 2,924 | 74 | 1,249 | 9,120 | 142 |
Illawarra | 1,503 | 5,181 | 628 | 2,833 | 420 | 1,783 | 12,348 | 92 |
Mid North Coast | 1,099 | 3,148 | 364 | 2,063 | 66 | 1,262 | 8,002 | 1,011 |
Murray | 604 | 1,532 | 290 | 1,144 | 109 | 638 | 4,317 | 228 |
New England & North West | 1,476 | 3,126 | 545 | 2,218 | 149 | 1,219 | 8,732 | 361 |
Newcastle & Lake Macquarie | 3,126 | 9,002 | 768 | 3,425 | 512 | 2,198 | 19,031 | 472 |
Richmond – Tweed | 1,026 | 4,462 | 537 | 2,238 | 94 | 1,211 | 9,567 | 255 |
Riverina | 1,333 | 2,946 | 380 | 1,660 | 282 | 973 | 7,576 | 386 |
Southern Highlands & Shoalhaven | 973 | 1,599 | 238 | 1,333 | 33 | 632 | 4,806 | 18 |
Sydney West | 16,071 | 30,631 | 6,198 | 19,291 | 1,810 | 9,861 | 83,863 | 2,247 |
Sydney East | 24,466 | 38,267 | 6,700 | 17,875 | 8,371 | 16,032 | 111,712 | 1,160 |
NSW public sector relative to the NSW workforce
The NSW public sector accounted for 9.8% of the approximately 4,151,962 people employed in NSW at June 2019.4 As in previous years, the NSW public sector’s contribution to employment varied from region to region. Analysis of the geographic distribution of NSW public sector employees relative to the overall workforce5 shows where government employment contributed the most to local and regional economies. Figure 11.2 shows the percentage of employed persons who were NSW public sector employees in each region in 2019.
The proportion of public sector employees relative to total employed people increased in several regions in 2019. This was largely due to an increase in the number of public sector employees in all regions coupled with a decrease in the number of employed persons in six regions: Hunter Valley (excluding Newcastle), Central Coast, Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven, Mid North Coast, Coffs Harbour – Grafton, and Far West and Orana.4 The largest proportional increase was in Far West and Orana, where public sector employees made up 20.3% of all employed persons in 2019 (up from 17.4% in 2018). In contrast, less than 10% of the workforce in Sydney East and Sydney West was employed in the NSW public sector.