Number of employees 2023

Key facts

Workforce figures

• 367,945 people employed or 302,179 FTE at June 2023
• 9.7% of the Victorian labour force
• 267 public sector employers
• 3.8% (11,013 FTE) rise in total employment between June 2022 and June 2023.

These figures don’t include projected reductions in Victorian Public Service (VPS) roles as a result of the 2023/24 Budget.

Major changes in employment

Changes in employment are primarily due to:

• increases in frontline staff
• transport and infrastructure projects.

Ongoing employment rose by 5.4% (12,147 FTE) representing 96% of the total rise in public sector employment.

Casual employment rose by 4.9% (485 FTE) representing 4% of the total rise in public sector employment.

Fixed-term employment fell by 2.9% (1620 FTE).

Rises in employment

Major rises in employment by sector:

• 7% (541 FTE) rise in TAFE and other education
• 5.3% (502 FTE) rise in water and land management
• 5.2% (5,355 FTE) rise in public healthcare
• 3.8% (2,754 FTE) rise in government schools
• 2.1% (1,121 FTE) rise in the Victorian Public Service
• 1.8% (544 FTE) rise in police and emergency services.

Major rises were driven by an increase in frontline employees:

• 10.5% (4,005 FTE) rise in nurses and midwives
• 8.6% (1,835 FTE) rise in education aides
• 4.7% (213 FTE) rise in ambulance officers and paramedics
• 4.5% (156 FTE) rise in TAFE teaching staff
• 1.9% (887 FTE) rise in school teaching staff
• 3% increase (345 FTE) in prison and security officers.

Other substantial rises included:

• 8.6% (308 FTE) rise in professional workers in engineering, science and business roles within the water and land management sector
• 37% (126 FTE) rise at Suburban Rail Loop Authority and 12.1% increase (290 FTE) at Major Transport Infrastructure Authority
• 8.7% (231 FTE) rise at Court Services Victoria.

---

Number of employees

Number of employers and employees 2023

Victorian Public Service (16% of public sector employees)

This table shows the number of employees in the Victorian Public Service (VPS) at June 2023. It doesn’t include the reduction in employees as a result of the May 2023 state budget.

Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
Departments	10	41,277	39,328
Administrative offices	13	3,976	3,841
Other Victorian Public Service employers including Victoria Police	33	12,133	11,591
Total	56	57,386	54,760

Public entities by all industry groups (84% of public sector employees)

• Open allClose all

• Public healthcare (40% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Health services	4	504	469
  Other health organisations	76	146,060	107,098
  Total	80	146,564	107,567

• Government schools (25% of public sector employees)

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Teaching service	1	85,245	72,751
  Schools local payroll	1,581	8,395	2,861
  Total	1,582	93,640	75,612

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

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Ambulance Victoria	1	7,030	6,256
  Country Fire Authority	1	1,019	935
  Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority	1	1,408	1,308
  Fire Rescue Victoria	1	4,469	4,448
  Victoria Police (sworn and PSOs)	1	17,956	17,632
  Victoria State Emergency Service	1	306	273
  Total	6	32,188	30,851

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

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Cemetery	5	733	686
  Creative industries	9	2,796	2,096
  Facilities management	9	987	775
  Finance	9	4,074	3,890
  Miscellaneous	10	1,631	1,485
  Regulator	14	942	892
  Sport and recreation	13	3,173	2,209
  Transport	5	3,247	3,152
  Total	74	17,583	15,184

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

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  TAFE	12	9,370	7,701
  Other education	3	653	572
  Total	15	10,023	8,273

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

  Responses for	Employers	Headcount	FTE
  Catchment	9	420	377
  Land management	11	2,473	2,227
  Planning	4	459	443
  Water corporations	19	7,209	6,884
  Total	43	10,561	9,931

---

Employee numbers over time, 2019 to 2023

Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2017 Filter by industry Whole of public sector Public entities Victorian Public Service Creative industries, finance, transport and other Police and emergency services Public health care TAFE and other education Water and land management Government schools Filter by demographic Overall Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Age Full-time or part-time Ongoing, fixed-term or casual Ongoing or fixed-term Cultural identity Disability Gender Gender identity Religion Headcount Full-time equivalent Employers Percentage of all employees by headcount Percentage of all full-time equivalent employees Remuneration Remuneration gap as an amount Remuneration gap as a percentage View as a number or percentage Percentage Number Salary Percentage of industry Percentage of total public sector workforce

 

---

Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2017 Filter by industry Whole of public sector Public entities Victorian Public Service Creative industries, finance, transport and other Police and emergency services Public health care TAFE and other education Water and land management Government schools Filter by demographic Overall Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Age Full-time or part-time Ongoing, fixed-term or casual Ongoing or fixed-term Cultural identity Disability Gender Gender identity Religion Headcount Full-time equivalent Employers Percentage of all employees by headcount Percentage of all full-time equivalent employees Remuneration Remuneration gap as an amount Remuneration gap as a percentage View as a number or percentage Percentage Number Salary Percentage of industry Percentage of total public sector workforce

 

---

Year 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2017 Filter by industry Whole of public sector Public entities Victorian Public Service Creative industries, finance, transport and other Police and emergency services Public health care TAFE and other education Water and land management Government schools Filter by demographic Overall Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Age Full-time or part-time Ongoing, fixed-term or casual Ongoing or fixed-term Cultural identity Disability Gender Gender identity Religion Headcount Full-time equivalent Employers Percentage of all employees by headcount Percentage of all full-time equivalent employees Remuneration Remuneration gap as an amount Remuneration gap as a percentage View as a number or percentage Percentage Number Salary Percentage of industry Percentage of total public sector workforce

 

---

Data sets and how we prepare data

• Workforce data sets
• How we prepare our data