2018 marked the 20th anniversary of the first Workforce Profile for NSW Government. Since 1999, every year the Workforce Profile has told a story of the changing shape of the workforce. The value of such rich data cannot be understated. The data has provided a powerful evidence base for identifying emerging issues and guiding workforce reform.
The 2018 Workforce Profile highlights a number of important features of the sector.
- The number of frontline employees continues to grow. The size of the sector increased in 2018 and 63.3% of the growth related to a greater number of nurses, school teachers and police officers.
- The gender pay gap increased for the first time since 2015. In 2018 the gap widened to 1.1% from the lowest ever recorded level of 0.3% in 2017. This related to a decrease in the number of males paid in the lower salaries. The number of females in higher salary ranges increased more than males in the higher salary ranges but was not at a level that offset the other changes.
- There has been progress in increasing diversity of the workforce but challenges remain. The representation of Aboriginal peoples continued to grow in 2018 across most salary ranges. The target to double the number of Aboriginal senior leaders by 2025 is on track to be reached ahead of time. However, the target to double the representation of people with disability by 2025 remains challenging. Representation of people with a disability continued to drop in 2018.
- The public sector is an important regional employer, and this year the report includes a specific focus on the Public Service in regional NSW. This section analyses the representation of public servants and senior executive across regional areas, recognising the importance that these roles have in local decision making and regional career paths. There is also a more detailed analysis on the relationship between salary and commuting.
The PSC would like to thank the departments and agencies across NSW Government for their continued support and commitment to providing their workforce data. Without this support our analysis and reports would not be possible.