Number of employees 2024

Key facts

Workforce figures

• 382,823 people employed or 314,629 FTE in the overall Victorian public sector at June 2024
• 9.8% of the Victorian labour force
• 262 public sector employers
• 4.1% (12,450 FTE) rise in total employment between June 2023 and June 2024.

Breakdown of the overall Victorian public sector workforce:

• 57,345 people (54,839 FTE) were employed in the Victorian Public Service (VPS) of which 40,972 (39,085 FTE) are employed by a VPS department.
• 325,478 people (259,791 FTE) were employed in public entities.

Examples of public entities include public health services, government schools, TAFEs, police and emergency services, water and land management bodies and other statutory authorities and state-owned corporations.

Changes in employment

Changes in employment are primarily due to increases in public health care, government schools, transport and water corporations.

Changes in ongoing and fixed-term employment from June 2023 to June 2024:

• Ongoing employment rose by 9.0% (from 236,686 FTE to 258,057 FTE)
• Fixed-term employment fell by 14.9% (from 55,097 FTE to 46,870 FTE).

Changes in ongoing and fixed-term employment may partially be from the Victorian Government’s 2023/24 Budget reprioritisation process.

Rises in employment

Overall employment rises:

• 0.1% (78 FTE) rise in the Victorian Public Service (VPS)
• 5.0% (12,372 FTE) rise in public entities
• 4.1% (12,450 FTE) rise in the public sector workforce.

There was a small rise in FTE in the VPS but overall headcount fell by 41 employees.

Rises in employment by sector:

• 7% (7,563 FTE) rise in public healthcare
• 4.9% (3,710 FTE) rise in government schools
• 6.5% (205 FTE) rise in the transport sector
• 5.5% (381 FTE) rise in water corporations.

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Number of employees

 

Number of employers and employees 2024

Victorian Public Service (15% of public sector employees)

This table shows the number of employees in the Victorian Public Service (VPS) at June 2024.

Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
Departments	10	41,310	39,420
Administrative offices	11	3,275	3,185
Other Victorian Public Service employers including Victoria Police	32	12,760	12,233
Total	53	57,345	54,839

Public entities by all industry groups (85% of public sector employees)

• Open allClose all

• Public healthcare (41% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Health services	75	154,754	114,677
  Other health organisations	3	498	454
  Total	78	155,252	115,130

• Government schools (26% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Schools local payroll	1,581	8,395	2,616
  Teaching service	1	90,091	76,706
  Total	1,582	98,486	79,322

• Police and emergency services (9% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Ambulance Victoria	1	7,056	6,166
  Country Fire Authority	1	1,046	962
  Fire Rescue Victoria	1	4,672	4,639
  Triple Zero Victoria	1	1,456	1,365
  Victoria Police (sworn and PSOs)	1	18,031	17,727
  Victorian State Emergency Service	1	317	274
  Total	6	32,578	31,133

• Creative industries, finance, transport and other (5% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Cemeteries	5	781	731
  Creative industries	9	2,720	1,959
  Facilities management	9	1,136	819
  Finance	9	4,235	4,053
  Regulator	15	1,002	964
  Sport and recreation	13	3,176	2,259
  Transport	5	3,459	3,357
  Miscellaneous	8	1,862	1,687
  Total	73	18,371	15,830

• TAFE and other education (3% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  TAFE	12	9,512	7,827
  Other education	3	691	610
  Total	15	10,203	8,437

• Water and land management (3% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Catchment	9	400	353
  Land management	9	2,111	1,852
  Planning	4	486	469
  Water corporations	19	7,591	7,265
  Total	41	10,588	9,938

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Employee numbers over time, 2020 to 2024

 

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How we prepare data

• How we prepared our 2024 data