Our people
Analysis of the Queensland public sector workforce composition.
Highlights
- 258,012.13 full time equivalent (FTE) positions as at March 2024.
- Nine of ten roles are frontline or frontline support.
- The sector workforce grew by 11,702.64 FTE (March 2023 to March 2024).
- Key frontline roles increased by 5,411.98 FTE (March 2023 to March 2024).
- Frontline and frontline support roles increased by 4,242.93 FTE (March 2023 to March 2024).
- Corporate roles increased by 2,047.73 FTE (March 2023 to March 2024).
- 20.7% of employees are located in the Brisbane Inner City statistical area.
- 63.6% work in the regions.
- 82.95% are employed permanently.
- 60.95% are full time.
Source: MOHRI 2024.
Understanding the data
Minimum obligatory human resource information (MOHRI) is data collected from payroll systems across the Queensland public sector. It includes individual demographics, base salary, actual earnings, location and type of work.
The Public Sector Commission is responsible for this data collection. MOHRI data is used across the sector for workforce planning and for budgetary purposes. MOHRI data is collected and collated every quarter for internal workforce monitoring purposes. The Public Sector Commission leads analysis of whole-of-sector MOHRI data and is responsible for the publication of this data.
Workforce data, like MOHRI, is highly subject to seasonal changes and is significantly influenced by the sector’s two largest workforces – the health and education (including TAFE) workforces. For example, the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTE) is lower in December and January, because temporary teachers, teacher aides, and other education employees are on school holidays.
While in previous years MOHRI data has been published biannually in March and September, the Public Sector Commission has determined that it is more appropriate to publish this data annually, in a State of the sector report. This annual publication of March MOHRI data is accompanied by greater levels of insight, analysis and narrative. Annual analysis minimises the impact of seasonal fluctuations. In this State of the sector report, MOHRI data for March 2024 is analysed and compared with MOHRI data collected over the past five years.
Analytical notes
As outlined previously, the education and health workforces have a significant impact on the whole-of-sector because of the sheer sizes of the workforces. In order to provide more nuanced analysis, this State of the sector report provides whole-of-sector analysis, as well as separate analysis for the education and health workforces as well as for the rest of the sector combined.
Additionally, throughout this report MOHRI analysis refers to either full-time equivalent (FTE) numbers or headcount.
MOHRI data is captured on a snapshot date each quarter and, for budgetary purposes, we are interested in understanding how many whole full-time positions are accounted for, or are being actively paid on that day. FTE numbers are important because they account for part-time work arrangements or the payment of part-time salaries. For example, if two people are working part-time at 5 days per fortnight, or 0.5, together they equate to 1 full-time equivalent position or 1 FTE. That is, we are paying for one full-time position, which is comprised of two individual employees.
In other circumstances, for example for training or diversity planning, we need to understand headcounts. Headcounts tell us the number of individual employees working in an agency or in the sector and so provides insights on the number of people we need to train or the number of people in a diversity cohort.