Part-time worker numbers rebound

KPMG analysis of recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force data shows a rebound in the number of part-time workers, as more Australians work part-time as a way to balance their professional and personal lives.

In 2024, an extra 200,000 workers were working part-time, bringing the proportion of Australian part-timers in the workforce to 30.9%. This comes after a sharp decline in part-time work during the pandemic, where the proportion of part-timers dropped to 30.3% in 2023, its lowest level since 2013.

“Many people opt for part-time work to achieve a better balance between their working and personal lives. This flexibility allows them more time for education, childcare and family responsibilities, pursuing hobbies, or transitioning into retirement,” KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said.

“Since the 1970s there has been a long-term trend towards part-time work that has only been briefly stalled by the impacts of the pandemic on the labour market."

Mr Rawnsley said that the majority of people working part-time were happy with the number of hours they worked.

“The ABS found that nearly 80% of part-timers were happy with their arrangement, in the Underemployed workers survey from February last year,” Mr Rawnsley said.

“Around 20% of workers said they would like to work more hours.”¹

The growing health care industry, which includes aged care, underpinned the growth in part-time employment in 2024. In 2019, 20% of all part-time workers were in the health care industry. In 2024, that proportion jumped to 22%.

The Accommodation & food services industry recorded the highest share of part-time workers, with 60.5% in part-time positions. The Retail industry had 50.6% part-time employees, while the Arts and Recreation industry had 46.1% in part-time employment. These industries have had strong increases in the share of part-time employment since 2009, with Accommodation & food services up 4.6 percentage points and Retail up 3.2 percentage points. 

“The recovery of the traditional part-time industries of Accommodation & food Services and Retail post-pandemic has provided options for people looking for part-time work. These may be younger people or working holiday makers, looking for flexible working arrangements,” Mr Rawnsley said.

“This reflected the increasing operating hours of retail and food services outside of traditional trading hours, which has required a larger part-time workforce.”

Real estate (-3.8 percentage points), Financial services (-3.4 percentage points), and Professional services (-2.5 percentage points) saw the largest declines in the share of workers working part-time. 

“In these industries, technology has reduced the need for part-time workers to fill customer service or administrative roles,” said Terry Rawnsley.

The Mining industry had the lowest share of part-time workers, at 5.3% of the total workforce. 

“Given that mines often operate around the clock, the mining industry has implemented the FIFO model to ensure a matching workforce. This is one reason why 95% of mining workers are in full-time positions, the highest proportion across any industry,” Mr Rawnsley said.

The Utilities (electricity, gas, water and waste services) industry had the second lowest share of part-time workers, with 10.5% of workers in part-time employment.

The coast stretching between Sydney and Brisbane had some of the highest percentages of part-time workers in Australia. This strip of coast had three regions,²  all of which had almost 40% of its workforce working part-time, with all three regions in the top 10 for part-time work in the country.  

Terry Rawnsley explains, “This section of the NSW coast is uniquely placed and naturally lends itself to a stronger part-time workforce. Sandwiched between Sydney and Brisbane, places like Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Bryon Bay and Tweed Heads caters for semi-retired city residents looking for sea and tree changes. This combined with the higher percentage of tourism jobs that are often part-time means that this strip of coast has some of the highest number of part-timers in the country.”  

The coastal strip starting in Geelong, stretching across the Great Ocean Road and into South Australia, also covered three regions³ in the top 15 highest part-time worker regions outside of the major capital cities.  That illustrated the attractiveness of this coastal region for part-time workers, Mr Rawnsley said.

The Central Coast recorded the highest share of part-time workers, with more than one-in-three workers working part-time. The large part-time workforce is influenced by the influx of older workers from Sydney who are transitioning into retirement, working fewer hours, and finding part-time work attractive. 

Additionally, the Central Coast's large share of Retail and Accommodation & Food Services industries, which tend to employ part-time workers, further contributes to this trend.

Blacktown had the lowest share of part-time workers (24.1%). Blacktown had a large share of prime-aged workers (24-44), who tend to work full-time. There is also a large cohort of first home buyers in the area, who tend to be in households with two full-time workers.

Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (25.3%) and City & Inner South (24.8%) also had low shares of part-time workers, reflecting relatively fewer workers in the industries with shorter working hours (Food Services, Arts & recreation, Administrative services, Retail).

“We are seeing that the share of part-time workers in Sydney is lower than in South East Queensland, Perth, and Melbourne. This is linked to the housing affordability challenges in Sydney, which really require full-time workers,” Mr Rawnsley said. 

When compared to Sydney, Melbourne had a much more geographically even spread of part-time workers. The Inner City had the lowest percentage of part-time workers at 27.8%, followed closely by the West at 28.2%, while the proportion in most other locations sat between 30-33%.

Interestingly, the Inner East and Inner South also had higher rates of part-time employment, Mr Rawnsley said. These regions had much higher shares of workers in the 55+ age group who often work part-time. 

The Inner region had a strong cluster of white-collar workers, with a quarter working in Financial Services and Professional Services, while the West had a blue-collar focus, with Transport and Manufacturing making up almost 20% of the labour force. These industries would have fewer part-time workers. 

The lifestyle locations of Mornington Peninsula and Outer East (which covers the Yarra Valley) had a higher share of part-time employment. 

“This is really speaking to work-life-balance in these types of lifestyle locations, as well as the larger tourism sectors which tend to have higher part-time employment,” Mr Rawnsley said.

The lifestyle location of the Sunshine Coast had the highest share of part-time workers in the region, with almost 40% of workers doing part-time hours. The Gold Coast had the second-highest share of part-time workers. With its large concentration of Accommodation & Food Services and Retail jobs and a strong tourism sector, the Gold Coast had an economy offering more part-time opportunities.

The Ipswich and Brisbane Inner regions had the lowest share of part-time workers, at 25.9% and 26.9% respectively. 

The Inner region had a strong cluster of white-collar workers, with over 20% working in Financial Services and Professional Services, while Ipswich had a blue-collar focus with Construction and Manufacturing making up almost 20% of the labour force. Although these regions had very different industry mixes, both the Brisbane Inner and Ipswich had industries that tend to have lower shares of part-time workers.

“Given the high property prices in the Inner region and the large first home buyer demographic in Ipswich, households are more likely to have two full-time workers to meet housing costs,” Mr Rawnsley said.

Perth Inner (28.0%) and Outback (25.1%) regions had the lowest share of part-time workers in the state, reflecting the large concentration of Mining workers living in these locations. 

“Western Australia’s labour market functions a little differently from those on the east coast of the country because of its higher concentration of FIFO jobs, with many miners living in the inner city and working in the Pilbara,” Mr Rawnsley said.

The coastal lifestyle location of Bunbury (33.6%) had the highest share of part-time employment in Western Australia. The Perth - North West region (30%), which takes in locations such as Two Rocks and Yanchep, also had a high share of part-time employment, suggesting that the coastal lifestyle may be influencing people’s decision-making.

The Wheat Belt stands out with 33% of the labour force working part-time, but this is influenced by the fact that 15% of its labour force is employed in Agriculture, which tends to have a higher proportion of part-time workers.

Alex Bernhardt
+61 478 469 999
abernhardt1@kpmg.com.au