Resources and related information

Annual earnings (FTE): Annual earnings are calculated on the salary plus regular allowances paid to employees at their actual FTE. Information on earnings is collected as at the snapshot date and is extrapolated over a 12-month period.

ANZSCO (occupation code): ANZSCO (Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations) is an industry standard coding system that attributes a six-digit code to a position to describe the occupation being performed. Refer to abs.gov.au/ANZSCO.

Appointment type: Either permanent, temporary, contract or casual (refer to specific definitions for each term).

Average tenure: Average of count of years since first appointed to public sector divided by total headcount.

BP2 agency: Agencies listed in the Queensland Budget Paper 2.

Brisbane or Brisbane and surrounding: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Area 4 (SA4) of Brisbane Inner City, Brisbane North, South, East and West.

Casual employment: Casual employees are not permanent employees and normally work less than full-time hours as prescribed by the applicable industrial instrument. Casual employment attracts the payment of a loading (as prescribed by the applicable industrial instrument) in lieu of sick and recreation leave. Casual employment is characterised by its ad hoc nature with each engagement standing alone.

Conduct and performance data: Section 128 of the Public Sector Act 2022 sets the legislative requirement for the public reporting of the Queensland Government conduct and performance data.

Contract–s122 and s155: Includes senior executives and chief executives and equivalents contracted under the Public Sector Act 2022 or similar provisions in other relevant Acts. Also, includes employees on common law contracts. Such contracts established under the Public Sector Act 2008, are referred to as s122 contracts. Contracts established under the Public Sector Act 2022, are referred to as s155 contracts.

Corporate services roles: Provide organisation-wide support enabling the public sector to deliver the Queensland Government’s objectives for the community.

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD): Employees who identify as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) are, for the purpose of Queensland public sector targets, defined as people who speak another language at home besides English including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language/s. The current target of greater than 12% in the public sector applies.

Discrimination: Occurs when a person, or group of people, is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their background or certain personal characteristics.

Earnings (full-time): Earnings are calculated on the salary and regular allowances paid to employees, typically including SES motor vehicle allowances, locality allowances and higher duties. Shift allowances and penalty rates can be regular allowances but not always. Average annual earnings do not include one-off or sporadic payments such as travelling allowances. Information on earnings is collected as at the quarterly snapshot date and is extrapolated over a 12-month period.

Employment status: Either full-time, part-time or casual (refer to specific definitions for each term).

Fixed term temporary: Temporary employees are employed for fixed term engagements of specific periods of time. The circumstances for engaging temporary employees are many and include specific budget allocation for particular projects, replacing permanent employees who are absent from their substantive position or assistance required to meet peak workloads. Temporary employees are generally employed on the same conditions as permanent employees as prescribed by the applicable industrial instrument. Where temporary appointment type is referred to in this report, it is to be read as fixed term temporary employment.

Key frontline/frontline roles and frontline support roles: Deliver services, programs and outcomes directly to the community, or provide essential support enabling the development and delivery of frontline services, programs and outcomes. Delivery can be via government centres, telephone, online or in-field. Key frontline roles are those that deliver key services and are immediately recognisable to the community, they are a subset of frontline and frontline support roles. These roles are critical or essential in a community and include nurses, doctors, teachers, police, child safety case workers, youth case workers and correctional officers. While people in key frontline and frontline roles engage directly with the community, frontline support roles provide essential support enabling the development and delivery of frontline services, programs and outcomes.

Full-time: An employee who works full-time hours as specified in the award or agreement under which the employee is engaged.

Full-time equivalent (FTE): The ratio of an individual’s working hours to the relevant award full-time standard hours for the work being performed.

Full-time equivalent days absent: The average full-time days absent during a quarter, divided by the prescribed award hours. Excludes casual employees. Data reflects leave taken in the previous quarter, to account for retrospective payroll processing.

• For unscheduled days this includes sick leave, carers leave, industrial disputes, workers compensation and miscellaneous special leave (includes leave such as bereavement or emergent leave hours).
• Sick includes absence due to sick leave.
• Carers includes absence due to carers leave.

Gender pay gap earning: The methodology for calculating gender pay gap in the Queensland public sector is the difference between the average annual earnings for male and female employees, as a proportion of male average annual earnings. Earnings includes base salary and regular allowances. Earnings reflect employees’ full-time earnings (regardless of whether the employee works part-time).

Gender pay gap (salary): The methodology for calculating gender pay gap in the Queensland public sector is the difference between the average annual salary for male and female employees, as a proportion of male average annualised salary. This reflects employees’ full-time salary (regardless of whether the employee works part-time).

Headcount: A count of people or the number of people who were employed and paid at the time of the snapshot.

Hire rate: Hire rate measures the percentage of employees who were hired into the workforce during the reporting period. This is a percentage, representing permanent employees who are hired into the Queensland public sector as a proportion of the total number of permanent employees in the Queensland public sector. This figure represents the underlying data for the preceding year (prior four quarters). For example, March 2024 includes data from July 2023, September 2023, December 2023 and March 2024.

Leadership Board: Consists of the chief executives of all government departments as well as the Public Sector Commissioner.

Location: This is based on the location of where an employee works – that is the locations of the primary Queensland Government provided workplace. Statistical Area Level 4 as defined in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Machinery of Government changes (MoG): Re-organisation of functions across public sector departments in response to portfolio changes or changes in government objectives initiated by the government of the day.

Minimum obligatory human resource information (MOHRI): Queensland Government agencies provide MOHRI data to the Public Sector Commission on a quarterly basis. MOHRI was first introduced in 1995 to enhance employee data collection for human resource planning purposes. Data is collected and collated from payroll systems across the Queensland public sector. In previous years, the Queensland Government workforce statistics were published twice a year in March or September biannual workforce profile. This data was presented in a report format as well as raw figures available on the open data portal. Any dataset that was previously presented in the profile, but is not included in the State of the sector report can be accessed via the open data portal. There are processes in place to continually review and improve data quality for reporting. This is resulting in minor adjustments to some very few figures that are published in prior profile reports.

Part-time: An employee who works less than full-time hours and performs those duties on a regular basis.

Permanent employment: An employee who is employed on a continuing basis to perform ongoing functions.

Racism: Refers to prejudice, discrimination or hatred directed at someone because of their colour, ethnicity or national origin.

Regions or rest of state: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Area 4 (SA4) of Cairns, Central Queensland, Darling Downs–Maranoa, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan–Beaudesert, Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday, Moreton Bay North and South, Queensland–Outback, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville and Wide Bay.

Separation rate: Separation rate measures the percentage of employees who left the workforce during the reporting period. This represents permanent employees who separate (i.e. exit) from the Queensland public sector as a proportion of the total number of permanent employees in the Queensland public sector. This figure represents the underlying data for the preceding year (prior four quarters). For example, March 2024 includes data from July 2023, September 2023, December 2023 and March 2024.

Sexual harassment: It refers to an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated, and where that reaction is reasonable in the circumstances. Sexual harassment does not need to be deliberate or repeated to be illegal. It can be experienced in the course of employment (i.e. person-to-person conduct) or through the workplace context (i.e. sexualised workplace environment).

Wellbeing: Refers to a sense of wellness across physical, psychological, social, financial and work domains.

Women in leadership: Employees identify as female/woman in leadership positions classified as SO, SES2, SES3, SES4 and CEO levels (s122 and s155 SO, SES and CEO roles).

Working for Queensland (WfQ): An annual survey which enables employees from a wide range of Queensland public sector to be heard, by providing insights into their employment experiences. Gaining these insights play a key role in creating a better workplace, delivering on the government’s priorities, and informing future workforce planning across the sector. In 2024, 71,853 Queensland public sector employees, from 63 organisations, participation in the 2024 survey—2,763 more than the 2023 survey. Throughout this report, WfQ numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number. As a result, some figures may not add to 100%.

Workplace bullying: Repeated and unreasonable behaviour by a person or group of people directed towards a worker or group of workers, that this behaviour occurs more than once and that the behaviour creates a risk to health and safety.

I'm pleased to deliver the 2025 State of the Sector Report for Queensland.

The public sector is Queensland's largest workforce with over 270,000 full-time (FTE) equivalent roles.

Our staff are located throughout Queensland, with most staff being employed outside the Brisbane inner city and surrounding suburbs.

Our workforce consists of people who provide important and very visible services in our frontline roles, our doctors and nurses and allied health professionals, our teachers, our police officers, our ambulance workers, our child safety officers and our correctional services staff, just to name a few.

Staff and frontline support roles and corporate roles such as policy, project, human resources, finance and information technology work behind the scenes and play critical roles in supporting our frontline workers deliver the services the community and government expects and needs.

Importantly, while there's been an increase in our public sector FTE over the last 12 months, these have been largely in the frontline and frontline support roles.

9 out of 10 roles continue to be frontline or frontline support roles.

The public sector plays a critical role in supporting Queenslanders and it's important that we understand the size, location and demographics, as well as emerging workforce and community expectations and trends.

Our commitment to transparency allows you to see who makes up the public sector, their backgrounds and experiences.

Their feedback matters, it shapes our future policies, it influences practice and it fosters a culture where everyone feels valued.

This report provides detailed information about our workforce, their experience of working in the sector, what diversity looks like in the sector, our work environment and most importantly, our performance.

This information is drawn from workforce data collected by the Public Sector Commission, the annual Working for Queensland survey data and other sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics to provide a comprehensive analysis.

Throughout the report, case studies have been included which importantly highlights the work the sector does.

I hope that, like me, you draw inspiration from these case studies that reflect the sector's spirit of service to the community, with a role in the Queensland public sector being more than just a job.

I invite you to explore the report to learn more about the public sector, our workforce, and the diverse and important work it does.