Statistical reports and data

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) supports the public to access the data we hold. 

On this page:

View our Data Strategy and Roadmap.

Published statistics

There are various statistics published related to the department’s activities and responsibilities, including:

  • Australian Jobs – annual snapshot of the Australian labour market including our workforce, employment, and training.
  • Employment services data – provides data related to the delivery of employment services.
  • Employment services evaluations – employment service evaluations aim to assess whether program and policy outcomes are being delivered as intended and generate evidence to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
  • Labour market insights – the Jobs and Skills Australia website contains a broad range of labour market products to assist an array of users to better understand the past, present and future Australian labour market.
  • National register of Vocational Education and Training – includes information on:
    • Nationally Recognised Training including training packages, qualifications, skill sets and accredited courses and
    • Registered Training Organisations that are approved to deliver nationally recognised training.
  • Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) – data available includes:
    • Worker participation, including by state, industry and country of origin
    • PALM scheme employer participation and status
  • Participant survey data – data to assist understand participant employment outcomes and their experience in Workforce Australia employment services.
  • Vocational Education and Training (VET) – data held and published by the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER), assisting researchers and the public to understand the VET sector.
  • Workplace Agreements Database and related reports – contains information about every federal collective agreement made since 1991.
  • Plus a large range of data sets published on www.data.gov.au

The department support’s access to statistics and data, improving government transparency and policy evaluation. Researchers are encouraged to use Whole of government integrated data assets, to support their research data needs.

For statistical or data requests:

Privacy of individuals’ data

The department is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and to the requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act.

We also adhere to applicable Privacy guidance for organisations and government agencies provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

For more information about the department’s privacy policy and practices, see Privacy - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government.

Data confidentiality

Data published by the department is made confidential to protect:

  • the privacy of individuals (including Sole Traders) and
  • commercial-in-confidence business information (excluding where businesses’ information is in the public domain (including business names attached to a Commonwealth Grant), or if they have given permission for their information to be disclosed).

Confidentiality treatments

Within the department five confidentiality treatments are used:

  • Category aggregation – involves combining cells that are likely to break confidentiality into broader categories. For example, combining an individuals’ age into 5 (or 10) year age groups.
  • Cell suppression – involves the withholding of cells from publication, protecting privacy. Suppressed cells will be shown as ‘n.p.’ in output. Cell suppression involves suppressing both primary cell(s), that is the cell(s) that break the frequency rule, plus secondary cell(s), that is cell(s) that help to protect the integrity of the primary confidential cell(s).
  • Conventional rounding – is rounding all data in a table or set of tables to a specified base, for example 5 or 10.
  • 50/50 rounding – is like conventional rounding; however, numbers have a 50% chance of being rounded up or down to the specified base.
  • Perturbation – involves a small random adjustment to aggregated data, protecting privacy while maximising the amount of information published.

Data confidentiality for data relating to individuals

The department uses a Frequency or Threshold Rule to ensure aggregated data is confidential, protecting the privacy of individuals.

Some data may be more sensitive and require a higher threshold for the minimum number of contributors, minimising the risk of spontaneous recognition.

Publishing Information about an identifiable business

The department generally only publishes information about an identifiable business where there is a legislative requirement to do so or in response to a question from Parliament.

Data Matching

The department undertakes data matching to assist with understanding program eligibility and / or compliance evaluation.

We only match data when we are legally authorised to do so. Our data matching activities align with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) Guidelines on Data Matching in Australian Government Administration.

For all data matching programs undertaken by the department, we publish data matching protocols (in line with the OAIC’s requirements):

2021 - Data Matching Program – Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program and Trade Support Loans - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

2020 - ATO Data Matching Protocol - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

For further information

For further information on the data released and held by DEWR, including how to access it, our data confidentiality policy and practices, data matching or any other information on this page, please contact us at data@dewr.gov.au.