New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Monday revealed 75% of casual employees prefer their current employment arrangement, primarily due to the flexibility in working hours, cited by over half of these workers.
David Taylor, ABS head of labour statistics, noted, “Three-quarters of casual employees currently prefer casual employment, with the flexibility in hours the main reason for over half of these people. The higher hourly pay rate was the main reason for almost a quarter of people preferring casual employment.”
Conversely, a quarter of casual employees expressed a preference for permanent positions, with the desire for paid leave entitlements and more job security being the most common reasons.
“For the one-quarter of casual employees who would prefer a non-casual job, the most common reasons were to have paid leave entitlements or have more secure employment”.
As of August 2024, over 2.5 million employees lacked paid holiday or sick leave entitlements, a key indicator of casual employment. This group accounted for 22% of all employees, down from a peak of nearly 24% between 2020 and 2022, but above the low of 21% during the pandemic in 2020.
Working from home remains prevalent, with 36% of Australians regularly doing so in August 2024. Although this is slightly down from 37% in 2023, it remains significantly higher than the pre-pandemic level of 32%.
Mr Taylor explained, “Our latest data, for August 2024, shows that 36% of Australians usually work from home. While this was slightly down from 37% in 2023, it was still four percentage points above the pre-pandemic level. This shows that many of the changes in working arrangements have continued beyond the pandemic.”
Employee earnings continued to rise, with half of all employees earning at least $1,396 per week in August 2024, an increase of $96 (7.4%) from the previous year. Median hourly earnings also saw a modest increase, reaching $40.00 compared to $39.70 in 2023.
Full-time employees reported median weekly earnings of approximately $1,700, while part-time employees earned $691. Occupation-wise, Managers and Professionals led with median weekly earnings of $2,100 and $1,827, respectively.
Sales workers and Labourers reported the lowest earnings, at $714 and $900 per week.
Trade union membership rose to 1.6 million employees in August 2024, up by 175,800 since 2022. However, the membership rate stood at 13.1%, slightly higher than 12.5% in 2022 but significantly below the 16.3% rate recorded a decade ago.