When is the best time to find a job in the APS?
Between January 2020 and April 2024, there were over 58,800 individual jobs advertised on APSjobs.gov.au, the official gazette for the Australian Public Service (APS). While many factors may influence the number of jobs posted in the APS, are there any specific patterns that could identify when the 'best' time to look for a job in the APS could be?
Overall, the most jobs available on APSjobs.gov.au was in July 2022, with 1,901 positions advertised in that month alone. With the Australian financial year starting on July 1st, unsurprisingly, July has the most jobs advertised out of any month — with the exception of 2020 (when the federal budget was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The lowest number of jobs? Also unsurprisingly, the end of the calendar year, where we all enjoy our holiday wind-down period.
But within all these jobs, there are three key elements we can look at to break down the data further: level, state and category.
Jobs by APS level
Breaking down the data by APS levels, we can easily see that the APS 6 level is the workhouse of the APS: 30% all jobs advertised were at this level. Closely behind the APS 6 level is Executive Level 1 with 23.71%. The lowest level is Senior Executive Service (SES) Band 3 — typically your CEO roles — with 0.16%. APS level 1, the base level of the APS, was the second lowest with 0.52% of jobs. SES Band 2 beat out APS Level 1 jobs by a fraction at 0.53%.
- APS 1
- APS 2
- APS 3
- APS 4
- APS 5
- APS 6
- EL1
- EL 2
- SES B1
- SES B2
- SES B3
Jobs by state
Where you live also makes a big difference to the number of jobs you can potentially access. That is, assuming you're not looking to relocate. And if you are, then the ACT of course is the place to go with 32.37% of all jobs available there. The numbers almost double in terms of available jobs when you count each state the jobs are available in.
While there's no spike in the data showing it, we can see a steady increase in more jobs being available in more places after the COVID-19 pandemic. This also hints at the rise in remote work which also rose as a result of the pandemic in many sectors, including the APS.
- ACT
- NSW
- VIC
- QLD
- SA
- WA
- TAS
- NT
Jobs by category
Finally, what you do also will also have an impact on what jobs you might want to apply for. Many jobs are categorised with multiple categories, which drives the numbers below up. The APSjobs website has 36 categories in all. The graph below shows categories above 2%; with administration the largest at 9.72%, followed by ICT at 6% and policy at 5.82%.
- Other
- Admin
- ICT
- Policy
- Project Management
- STEM
- Other Management
- Communication
- Program Management
- HR
- Regulation
- Legal
- Accounting/finance
- Customer service
The most common job, level and location overall?
That award goes to APS level 6 admin roles based in the ACT, which is entirely consistent with APS level 6, admin and ACT being the most common level, category and location respectively for APS roles. July 2022 was also the month with the highest number of these roles advertised at 142, also consistent with the most number of roles advertised across this date range.
How do your skills, experience and location compare? Explore the data below.
Credits and sources
Thanks to APSjobs for kindly sharing all this data with me, James Offer. Questions? Send me an email!