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Regional profile of the public sector

Chapter 11

34%

of employees were located in regional areas at census date

(–0.4pp vs 2022)

40.7%

of employees were located outside Sydney at census date

(–0.4pp vs 2022)

Note: 'pp' stands for percentage points.

The NSW public sector is the largest employer in Australia, accounting for more than 10% of employment in the state. While a majority of roles are located in metropolitan areas, the NSW public sector provides a significant proportion of all employment in regional NSW.1

This analysis is based on employees’ work locations in the Workforce Profile data submitted by departments and agencies. It does not reflect any work-from-home arrangements. 

In 2023, 34% (+4,968 headcount) of public sector employees worked in regional areas. All Sydney local government areas (LGAs) as well as the Newcastle and Wollongong LGAs are classified as metropolitan. 

Comparing Sydney with the rest of the state2, 59.3% of NSW public sector employees worked in Sydney (see Figure 11.1, Sydney East and Sydney West combined), an increase of 0.4pp in 2023 (from 59% in 2022). While most of the public sector workforce was located in Sydney, the proportion of public sector employees working outside Sydney was higher than the proportion of the resident population in these areas (40.7% compared to 37.3%) and has decreased since 2022 (−0.4pp from 41% in 2022).3

Figure 11.1: NSW public sector employees by region, census headcount, 2023

Figure 11.1: NSW public sector employees by region, census headcount, 2023 – text version

NSW regions

Region Census headcount Representation by region (%)
Hunter Valley exc Newcastle 12,192 2.7
Mid North Coast 12,252 2.7
New England and North West 11,752 2.6
Far West and Orana 11,061 2.5
Coffs Harbour – Grafton 9,246 2.1
Richmond – Tweed 13,627 3.0
Capital Region 12,210 2.7
Riverina 10,865 2.4
Murray 6,123 1.4
Central West 16,061 3.6

Sydney regions

Region Public sector employees, census headcount Representation by region (%)
Sydney East 143,632 31.9
Sydney West 123,694 27.5
Central Coast 17,738 3.9
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie 26,133 5.8
Illawarra 17,277 3.8
Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven 6,733 1.5

Regional profiles

The distribution of government sector census period full-time equivalent (FTE) by service and region is shown in Table 11.1. Regions outside Sydney accounted for 39.3%, while Sydney East and Sydney West together accounted for 60.7%. In line with previous years, the highest proportion of employees in the government sector working outside Sydney were in the Teaching Service (44.3%) and the NSW Health Service (42%), followed by other Crown services (39.7%), the NSW Police Force (35.4%), the Public Service (33.9%) and the Transport Service (24.6%). 

Table 11.1: Census period FTE by service and region (government sector), 20234

Work region Public Service NSW Health Service NSW Police Force Teaching Service Transport Service Other Crown services Total government sector
Capital Region 2,149 3,134 647 2,260 209 1,093 9,491
Central Coast 2,503 6,401 743 3,192 130 1,653 14,624
Central West 3,639 4,288 547 2,357 333 1,712 12,875
Coffs Harbour – Grafton 1,334 2,772 279 1,455 511 906 7,258
Far West and Orana 2,292 2,974 550 1,740 281 1,249 9,085
Hunter Valley exc Newcastle 2,693 2,488 472 2,651 85 1,403 9,791
Illawarra 1,846 5,713 640 3,110 546 2,138 13,993
Mid North Coast 1,391 3,576 400 2,200 85 1,431 9,082
Murray 753 1,546 290 1,168 110 759 4,627
New England and North West 1,757 3,205 546 2,164 177 1,470 9,319
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie 3,002 9,900 784 3,857 748 2,492 20,782
Richmond – Tweed 1,264 4,923 556 2,376 149 1,357 10,625
Riverina 1,506 3,314 398 1,739 334 1,214 8,506
Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven 1,005 1,816 236 1,439 53 783 5,332

NSW public sector relative to the NSW workforce

The NSW public sector accounted for 10.3% of the approximately 4.4 million people employed in NSW at June 20235.

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 that the percentage of employed persons who were NSW public sector employees ranged from 7.8% to 18.8% across the regions in 2023. 

Figure 11.2: Public sector employees as a proportion of NSW employed persons by region, 2023

Figure 11.2: Public sector employees as a proportion of NSW employed persons by region, 2023 – text version

NSW regions

Region Percentage
Hunter Valley exc Newcastle 7.8
Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven 8.7
Murray 8.9
Sydney East 9.5
Capital Region 9.8
Sydney West 9.9
Central Coast 10.2
Illawarra 10.6
Richmond – Tweed 10.7
New England and North West 11.3
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie 11.4
Riverina 12.5
Mid North Coast 13.4
Coffs Harbour – Grafton 14.1
Central West 14.9
Far West and Orana 18.8

Sydney regions

Region Representation by region (%)
Sydney East 9.5
Sydney West 9.9
Central Coast 10.2
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie 11.4
Illawarra 10.6
Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven 8.7

Notes

1Regional boundaries are based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The work locations of 2,614 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 have not been included in denominators when calculating percentages.

2Statistical Area Level 4, Sydney SA4s grouped, excludes ‘Unknowns’ and ‘Outside NSW’. See Regional reference table in Chapter 12 for more detail.

3Australian Bureau of Statistics (2022) ‘2022 Locality to 2021 SA2 Coding Index' Data by Statistical Area 4 , ABS,  accessed 4 October 2022.

40.3% of census period FTE is not mapped to any Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) for NSW because of postcode and/or suburb data that is missing or outside NSW.

5Australian Bureau of Statistics (June 2023), ‘Table 1: RM1 - Labour force status by age, labour market region (ASGS) and sex, October 1998 onwards, [time series spreadsheet], Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, accessed 17 September 2023.

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