Australia’s colossal boom in government-funded jobs

Wednesday 18 June 2025

Harry Ottley, economist at CBA, has written an excellent report on the Q1 2025 Labour Account from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which illustates the extraordinary growth in non-market (government-aligned) jobs.

The following chart from Ottley shows that over the past decade, the growth in non-market jobs has trended higher:

The non-market sector has also dominated job growth since the pandemic:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.