Title page
Contents
Executive summary 1
Employees on fixed-term contracts 2
Independent contractors 2
Background 5
Why do employers use labour hire and contract workers? 6
Sources of data used in this paper 6
Definition of labour hire employees 7
Trends in use of labour hire employees 7
Number of people working for Labour supply services 8
Characteristics of labour hire workers 10
Demographic characteristics 10
Prevalence of casual employment among labour hire workers and indicators of job stability and security 11
Occupational profile of labour hire workers 13
Industry profile of labour hire employees 13
Earnings of labour hire employees 14
Employees on fixed-term contracts 16
Definition of employees on fixed-term contracts 16
Trends in the use of employees on fixed-term contracts 16
Private and public sector use of employees on fixed-term contracts 17
Characteristics of employees on fixed-term contracts 18
Earnings of employees on fixed-term contracts 20
Independent contractors 20
Definition of independent contractors 20
Trends in numbers of independent contractors 21
Industry profile of independent contractors 22
Conclusion 23
Appendix 24
Definition of labour hire workers 24
Definition of independent contractors (ICs) 24
Table 1. Summary of data sources used to measure extent and characteristics of labour hire and contract work 6
Table 2. Occupation of employees paid by a labour hire firm or employment agency, August 2022 13
Table 3. Median hourly earnings of employees by selected occupation of main job, August 2022 15
Table 4. Number of employees on a fixed-term contract in Australia, 2014 to 2023 16
Table 5. Number of employees on fixed-term contracts by sector, every 2 years between 2014 and 2022 17
Table 6. Australian Public Service (APS) employees by contract type, 2004 to 2023 18
Table 7. Number of employees on fixed-term contracts in selected industries, August 2023 19
Table 8. Median hourly earnings of employees on fixed-term contracts in selected occupations, August 2023 20
Table 9. Independent contractors by industry, August 2014 and August 2023 22
Figure 1. Number of workers employed in Labour supply services, 1994 to 2023 9
Figure 2. Labour supply services employment share of total employment, 1994 to 2023 10
Figure 3. Relative job instability of labour hire workers compared with all employees, June 2023 12
Figure 4. Number of independent contractors in Australia, 2014 to 2023 21