Casual Workers in Australia Value Job Flexibility

The majority of casual employees prefer to work in casual employment, according to new data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

David Taylor, ABS head of labour statistics, said "Three-quarters of casual employees currently prefer casual employment, with the flexibility in hours the main reason for over half of these people. The higher hourly pay rate was the main reason for almost a quarter of people preferring casual employment."

"For the one-quarter of casual employees who would prefer a non-casual job, the most common reasons were to have paid leave entitlements or have more secure employment.".

There were over 2.5 million employees without paid holiday or sick leave entitlements - a commonly used measure of casual workers - in August 2024. This represents 22 per cent of all employees (and 18 per cent of all employed people).

"Casual employment was particularly impacted by the pandemic, falling from around 25 per cent of employees to under 21 per cent in 2020. While the share of casual employees subsequently rose to almost 24 per cent between 2020 and 2022, it has since dropped to just over 22 per cent of all employees in August 2024." Mr Taylor said.

Working from home is still more common among Australians after the pandemic, but slightly less than it was a year ago.

"Our latest data, for August 2024, shows that 36 per cent of Australians usually work from home. While this was slightly down from 37 per cent in 2023, it was still four percentage points above the pre-pandemic level. This shows that many of the changes in working arrangements have continued beyond the pandemic." Mr Taylor said.

The main reasons people usually worked from home was to work more flexibly or choose their own hours, followed by operating a business from home or having a home-based job.