Regional profile of the public sector

Key statistics for each region are displayed in Table 11.1, and distribution of the census period FTE by region and service is shown in Table 11.2. Table 11.1 compares 2020 with 2018 (rather than 2019) as the 2019 location data has been confirmed as low quality.³

Table 11.1: Key statistics by region, 2020⁴

In 2020, regional NSW accounted for 40.2% of FTE, while Sydney East and Sydney West together accounted for 59.8% (see Table 11.2). In line with previous years, the highest proportion of employees in the government sector working in regional areas were in the Teaching Service (44.1%) and the NSW Health Service (42.5%), followed by other Crown services (39.0%), the Public Service (36.5%), the NSW Police Force (35.5%) and the Transport Service (22.1%).

Table 11.2: Census period FTE by service and region, 2020

The NSW public sector accounted for 10.4% of the 3,947,132 people employed in NSW at June 2020.⁵ This is a notable increase from 9.8% last year, and is likely a result of a reduction in the number of employed persons in NSW due to the pandemic (204,830 fewer employed persons).

Analysis of the geographic distribution of NSW public sector employees (including casuals) relative to the overall workforce⁶ 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 2020. Most regions had between 10% and 15% of their employed persons working for the NSW public sector, with notable exceptions being Far West and Orana (20.5%) and Coffs Harbour – Grafton (16.9%).

Figure 11.3: Public sector employees as a proportion of NSW employed persons by region, 2020

The percentage of NSW public sector employees whose normal work location is in a different region to their home location varies across regions (see Figure 11.4). In the Hunter Valley (excluding Newcastle), Central Coast, Illawarra, and Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven regions, between 30% and 40% of public sector employees generally work in a different region to their home location. In most of these cases, the normal work location is Sydney West or Sydney East, which reflects these regions’ proximity to Sydney. In contrast, less than 10% of NSW public sector employees living in the Riverina and Richmond – Tweed regions had a normal work location outside their home region, likely due to the size of these regions.

The employment catchment area of Greater Sydney shown in Figure 11.5 has expanded over recent decades, with large numbers of employees normally commuting to and from the surrounding regions. Understanding the normal commuting patterns can provide insight into the impact of work‑from‑home arrangements on regions and transport services.

Figure 11.5: Greater Sydney area

Table 11.3: Usual commuting profile of Sydney and surrounding regions, 2020

* Asterisks indicate redacted data where there are fewer than 20 records.

Table 11.3 illustrates the number of NSW public sector employees (including casuals⁶) who generally travel between regions in and around Sydney for work. The largest proportion of commuting occurs between Sydney West and Sydney East. Around 21.1% of NSW public sector employees in Sydney East normally travel in from Sydney West, and 20.3% of NSW public sector employees in Sydney West live in Sydney East. In total, just over 48,000 NSW public sector employees generally travel between these two regions for work.

Nearly 10,000 employees normally commute from the Central Coast and Illawarra regions to Sydney East or Sydney West. This constitutes around 25.2% of employees living in these regions. Far fewer employees travel out of Sydney East and Sydney West to work in the surrounding regions (1,628 and 1,293, respectively). This is consistent with the high concentration of NSW public sector employment in Sydney.

¹ Regional boundaries are based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard developed by the ABS. The work locations of 2,290 NSW public sector employees were unknown due to Workforce Profile data collection records missing a postcode and/or suburb name, or employees working outside NSW. These employees are excluded from all analysis presented in this chapter.

² Statistical Areas Level 4, Sydney Collapsed, excludes ‘Unknowns’ and ‘Outside NSW’.

³ Education identified issues with the quality of location data submitted for the 2019 Workforce Profile.

⁴ ABS, Population Estimates by Age and Sex, Regions of Australia (ASGS 2016), 2018, http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/

⁵ ABS, Labour force status by Age, Labour market region (ASGS) and Sex, October 1998 onwards, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/sep-2020

⁶ Including casual employees gives a better sense of the number of people contributing to the NSW economy and travelling between regions for work.