At 30 June 2019, the Library’s workforce comprised 155 staff:

• Office of the Parliamentary Librarian—8 employees (6.9 FTE)
• Library Collections and Databases Branch—59 employees (56.4 FTE)
• Research Branch—88 employees (75.3 FTE)

During 2018–19, the Library workforce:

• decreased slightly from 156 to 155 employees, and in FTE from 144.6 (at 30 June 2018) to 138.6 (at 30 June 2019), 34 (22 per cent) of whom were non-ongoing
• had a median age of 46 years (up slightly from 45 years in 2018).

Age profile

At 30 June 2018, 30 per cent of the Library’s ongoing employees were aged 55 years and over; a further 26 per cent will move into that age cohort within the next 10 years. The age profile of the Library’s ongoing employees remains considerably older than that of the Australian Public Service (APS); the proportion of ongoing employees aged 60 years and over (just over 13 per cent) is more than twice that of the APS (seven per cent).²¹

The Library’s relatively older age profile has been evident for some years, but is less pronounced than it was just over a decade ago; the proportion of ongoing employees aged 45 years and over fell from 69 per cent in 2008²² to 58 per cent in 2018, and fell slightly again to 55 per cent in 2019. However, the impact was felt strongly in the reporting period with eight age retirements.

Classification

Given the nature of much of the work undertaken in the Library, the classification profile remains concentrated at PEL 1, with 44 per cent of ongoing employees being at the level—the majority of whom are in Research Branch. In contrast, only 19 per cent of ongoing APS employees are at the equivalent EL 1.²³

The proportion of employees at middle management (PEL 2) is slightly below the APS average—seven per cent of ongoing employees compared with eight per cent for the APS.

Another measure of classification profile is span of control: at June 2019, the Library had 12.2 ongoing employees at lower classifications for each PEL 2, compared with 10.6 for the APS.²⁴

Employment status

As noted earlier, the Library’s non-ongoing workforce at June 2019 accounted for 22 per cent of all employees, unchanged from the previous year.

Non-ongoing employees are generally engaged to replace staff on long leave, to work on specific projects, to meet demands in peak periods, and while recruitment processes are underway. Using fixed-term positions (one or two years) also allows flexibility to redirect resources according to business needs as new areas of interest to the Parliament emerge or as the level of the Library’s funding varies year to year.

The proportion of non-ongoing employees in the Library is substantially higher than in the APS (ten per cent),²⁵ reflecting the sessional nature of many of our work patterns. The Library continued to maintain its temporary employment register to support this demand.

Recruitment

During 2018–19, there were 32 new external employees recruited—12 were ongoing and the remainder were engaged on a fixed-term or sessional basis.

• Research Branch recruited 20 new employees (10 ongoing and 10 non-ongoing)
• Library Collections and Databases Branch recruited 10 new employees (two on-going and eight non-ongoing)
• the Office of the Parliamentary Librarian recruited two new employees (both non-ongoing).

Separations

Thirty-three staff left the Library during 2018–19: 16 were ongoing employees, one was a secondee and the remainder were non-ongoing on fixed-term or sessional contracts.

For all staff, the separation rate was 21 per cent, an increase from 17 per cent the previous year, but similar to the 20 per cent recorded in the year ending 30 June 2017. For ongoing staff, the separation rate of 13 per cent was somewhat higher than that for the APS (nine per cent in 2018).²⁶ Half of these were age retirements (reflecting the Library’s age profile).