Australia's library labour force

Australia's library labour force

In October 2007 the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the labour force statistics from the 2006 national census. The five-yearly census data is supplemented each month by general data concerning employment trends.

Major features

Australia has a workforce of 10.65 million people. As at April 2008 there are 29,100 library workers in Australia. Of these, 12,300 are librarians, 8,000 library technicians and 8,800 library assistants. These statistics do not include teacher-librarians, who are counted among primary and secondary school teachers.

The graph shows the employment level ('000) for this occupation for February, 1990 to 2006. Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, Australia and http://jobsearch.gov.au/joboutlook.

• Librarians have a higher than average proportion of part-time workers among their ranks. About 31% have part-time jobs.
• Librarians are markedly older than the average for Australian occupations. 65% are 45 or older, compared to 36% in the total workforce, 88% are 35 or more [58%]. Only 12% are under 35 [42%].

Age profile - Australian librarians

Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, Australia - average 2005

• Library work is highly feminised. 84% of employed librarians and more than 94% of library technicians are women. Among female librarians, 65% work full time. 84% of male librarians work full time.

Male/Female %

Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, Australia - average 2005

• Librarians are spread across a range of industry sectors. Just over 41% are employed in the cultural and recreation sectors, 39.2% in education, 9.8% in industry, government administration and defence and 9.8% in other sectors.
• Geographically, NSW has 42% of Australia's librarians, Victoria 21%, Queensland 13.4%, South Australia 5.9%, Western Australia 10.6%, ACT 3.7%, Tasmania 0.8% and the Northern Territory 1.8%.

Employment Growth

Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, Australia - to February 2006 & DEWR trend data

• Library workers rank in the seventh decile for 'employment in growth industries'. This means an above average proportion works in sectors estimated to grow strongly in the foreseeable future.

Unemployment

Note: ALIA is not responsible for the strict accuracy of these data. They are derived from Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Surveys and from Department of Employment and Workplace Relations trend data.

Contact: Ms Heather Nash, Advisor, Industrial Relations / Human Resources
ALIA National Office.

Contact

Heather Nash (please remove '.nospam' from address), adviser industrial relations and employment, ph 02 02 6215 8228