Australia’s public sector workforce
93.7 per 1,000
Employee jobs across all three levels of government per 1,000 residents in 2024–25. The public sector employed 2,597,300 people in total, against a national population of 27,724,700 as at Sept 2025. State and territory governments accounted for 76.7% of the workforce, the Commonwealth for 14.9%, and local councils for 8.4%.
ABS released 6 Nov 2025
What public sector workers do
“Education and training” and “Health care and social assistance” together employ 55.3% of the public sector workforce. ABS publishes the breakdown by ANZSIC industry division; labels are reproduced verbatim from the source dataset.
Public administration and safety
880,60033.9% of total
Education and training
768,30029.6% of total
Health care and social assistance
668,70025.7% of total
Transport, postal and warehousing
79,3003.1% of total
Electricity, gas, water and waste services
66,4002.6% of total
Professional, scientific and technical services
39,6001.5% of total
Arts and recreation services
23,6000.9% of total
Financial and insurance services
19,8000.8% of total
Other industries
17,6000.7% of total
Information media and telecommunications
16,5000.6% of total
Construction
9,2000.4% of total
Rental, hiring and real estate services
7,7000.3% of total
Where the workforce sits
State and territory governments are the largest employer of public sector workers in Australia. Most teachers and most public hospital staff are employed by state governments under the federation’s service delivery model.
Commonwealth
385,90014.9% of total
State and territory
1,993,40076.7% of total
Local
218,0008.4% of total
Annual headcount
ABS replaced its survey-based Public Sector Employment and Earnings collection with Single Touch Payroll administrative data in 2021-22. Numbers before that year used a different methodology and are not shown.
2021–22
2,348,400
2022–23
2,427,800
2023–24
2,515,300
2024–25
2,597,300
4 years shown, 2021–22 to 2024–25. Latest: 2024–25 at 2,597,300.
OECD comparison
OECD’s Government at a Glance 2025 measures employment in general government as a percentage of total employment, which excludes public corporations and so is narrower than the ABS public sector figure above. The dataset is biennial; 2023 is the most recent harmonised year in the 2025 edition, and the few countries whose latest available data is older are flagged inline. Cross-country comparisons mismatch on institutional scope: some jurisdictions deliver schools and hospitals through public corporations or contractors that are not counted in general government.
Australia 15.7% · rank 21 of 36 · 2023 (OECD’s latest year)
Lower quartile 13.6% · median 16.7% · upper quartile 20.6%
Norway
30.1%*
Sweden
28.1%
Denmark
27.3%
Finland
25.2%
Iceland
24.9%*
Latvia
23.6%
Estonia
23.4%
Lithuania
21.2%
France
20.7%
Canada
20.2%
Australia
15.7%
OECD’s latest available data is older than 2023 for Norway (2022), Iceland (2019).
Sources
Australian Bureau of Statistics · Released 6 Nov 2025 · CC-BY 4.0
Workbook 1 (Level of government, state and territory) and Workbook 2 (Industry). Powers the headline, the level-of-government split, the industry breakdown, and the trend.
Australian Bureau of Statistics · Released 19 Mar 2026 · CC-BY 4.0
Table 1, Estimated Resident Population as at Sept 2025. Used as the per-1,000 denominator.
OECD · 2025 edition · OECD Terms
General government employment as a percentage of total employment, for the 36 of 38 OECD member countries that report this indicator. Powers the international comparison and the median and interquartile range.
Refreshed 19 May 2026 · Caveats