The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases quarterly estimates of employed people by industry (in their main job, where a person holds more than one job) in the publication Labour Force, detailed, quarterly, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003. Data is available since November 1984, with the most recent data being February 2019. The next available data (May 2019) will be released on 20 June 2019.

Estimates of employment by industry division are available in trend, seasonally adjusted and original series. For finer level detail on industry of employment (e.g. sub-division), the ABS releases original (unadjusted) estimates. Data is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0), cat. no. 1292.0 (see Chapter 8 – The detailed classification).

Given the ongoing interest in employment by industry, two previously published tables have been updated for 2019. Table 1 presents estimates from the trend series and Table 2 presents an average of quarterly estimates from the original series by sex. To enable comparisons, estimates for each industry division and the total number of people employed are included. The estimates represent national figures. Estimates are also available by state/territory, greater capital city/balance of state and labour market region (SA4). For different time periods, or for other employment characteristics, refer to the quarterly release (via the ‘Downloads’ tab). For additional information on this theme, refer to the Parliamentary Library publication, Employment by industry statistics: a quick guide.

1. Employed people by industry—Feb 2018 and Feb 2019 (quarterly, trend)

Source: ABS, Labour force, detailed, quarterly, Feb 2019, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003 (Table 04)

Note: some of the estimates shown for Feb 2018 differ to those previously published due to the ABS undertaking a rebenchmarking process. This process involves reviewing the population estimates used to benchmark the Labour Force Survey, and in some cases results in minor revisions to the series of estimates.

2. Share of industry employment by sex—Feb 2019 (average 4 qtrs ending, original)

Source: ABS, Labour force, detailed, quarterly, Feb 2019, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003 (Data cube EQ06)

Other useful sources

The Department of Jobs and Small Business publishes a selection of ABS industry statistics on their Labour Market Information Portal (LMIP), including regional industry data. The ‘Labour Force Region (SA4)’ provides ABS data and can be selected using an interactive map. Each SA4 profile includes a point in time snapshot of employment by industry, employment status (full-time/part-time) by industry, employment by industry by gender and employment distribution by industry vs state. The profile also includes an employment by industry five year time series (e.g. February 2014, February 2018 and February 2019). The ‘Employment projections’ section of the LMIP provides regional projections (level of employment change) for the five years to May 2023.