Employment services is an Australia's welfare topic

On this page

The Australian Government funds employment services so that people receiving income support have access to support that will help them find and keep a job. The kinds of services typically included in employment services programs include:

  • services that help individuals during their job search, such as helping to find jobs or writing resumés
  • training programs aimed at helping to improve the employability of people who are unemployed
  • services that help unemployed individuals start their own business
  • work experience programs that place unemployed people in work-like activities (such as Work for the Dole).

Employment services primarily support people who receive specific income support payments, such as those receiving unemployment and parenting payments (see Unemployment payments and Parenting payments). To continue to receive such payments, an individual may need to participate in an employment services program to meet mutual obligation (activity-testing) requirements.

This page focuses on the main employment services programs administered by the Australian Government. These data are sourced from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for mainstream employment services (unpublished data for the period June 2005 to January 2023, and published data for February-March 2023) and Department of Social Services for Disability Employment Services (from June 2011 to March 2023; DSS 2023).

Other government labour market policies that have a direct impact on employment are wage subsidy programs that incentivise employers to employ jobseekers. One example of these was the JobKeeper Payment, which ended in March 2021 (see ‘Chapter 4 The impacts of COVID-19 on employment and income support in Australia’ in Australia’s welfare 2021: data insights for further details).

See the glossary for definitions of terms used on this page.

Overview of main employment service programs

The number of people registered with the main employment service programs were:

  • 645,600 in mainstream employment service programs (including Workforce Australia Services, Workforce Australia Online and Transition to Work) as at 31 March 2023 (DEWR 2023)
  • 273,600 in Disability Employment Services (DES) program as at 31 March 2023 (DSS 2023)
  • 79,600 in ParentsNext as at 31 March 2023 (DEWR 2023)
  • 33,900 Community Development Program participants as at 30 September 2022 (NIAA 2022).

The rest of this page is focussed on mainstream employment services and the DES program, due to data availability. Together, these programs cover the majority of job seekers using employment services.

Trends in mainstream employment services

Overall, between June 2005 and March 2023, the number of people participating in mainstream employment services declined by 25%, from 856,200 to 645,600 (Figure 1). As a proportion of the number of people in the labour force (ABS 2023), this represents a decline from 8.2% to 4.5% over this period.

Very different trends were observed, however, before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020:

  • Before the pandemic, participant numbers were falling – from 856,200 to 653,600 between June 2005 and February 2020.
  • Between February and September 2020, the number of participants more than doubled (from 653,600 to 1.5 million), following the introduction of social distancing and business-related restrictions in March 2020.
  • From September 2020 to January 2023, the number of participants steadily declined to 641,000, which was 1.9% lower (12,600 fewer participants) than in February 2020, before increasing slightly to 645,600 by March 2023.

These changes are broadly consistent with patterns observed for people receiving Unemployment payments in the 12 months to March 2021.

Figure 1: Trends in people participating in mainstream employment services (2005 to 2022) and disability employment services (2011 to 2022)

The line chart shows that the number of mainstream employment service participants declined between June 2005 and June 2019, from 856,200 to 631,700 participants. It then shows a steep increase to 1.5 million participants in June 2020 before declining to 793,000 by June 2022. The number of disability employment service participants steadily increased from June 2011 to June 2021 (from 145,400 to 315,900), and declined slightly to 296,500 by June 2022.

Note: Data are as at 30 June in each year.

Source: AIHW analysis of unpublished mainstream employment service data from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations from June 2005 to June 2022; Department of Social Services Disability Employment Services – monthly profile  (June 2011 – June 2022) for disability employment service data.

Outcomes of employment services

Despite a large increase in the number of mainstream employment service participants in the early months of the pandemic, the proportion of participants able to secure employment declined, based on a monthly survey of respondents of their employment outcomes 3 months later (see box above for further details). Around 42% of all people who responded to the survey in 2020 were employed when outcomes were measured, compared with 46–50% in 2017–2019. This decline reflects labour market conditions at the start of the pandemic and coincided with falls in employment (see Employment and unemployment for further details). By 2021, this had recovered to 51%.

The proportion of participants reported as not in the labour force 3 months after participating remained relatively stable from 2017–2021 (17–20%), suggesting that the pandemic did not have a large impact overall on participants who were not in the labour force (DEWR 2022; see ‘Chapter 3 Employment and income support following the COVID-19 pandemic’ in Australia’s welfare 2023: data insights for further details).

Trends in Disability Employment Services

Between June 2011 and June 2022, the number of DES participants more than doubled from 145,400 to 296,500, with the rate of increase varying over this period (Figure 1):

  • Between June 2011 and June 2018, participant numbers increased by 33%, or by an average of 572 participants per month.
  • Between June 2018 and June 2021, participant numbers rose more quickly, a 63% increase overall or by an average of 3,400 per month over this period.
  • From June 2021 until January 2022, participant numbers remained relatively stable (around 313,000) before gradually declining to 273,600 in March 2023.

Outcomes of Disability Employment Services

While the number of people accessing DES continued to steadily increase throughout the early months of the COVID -19 pandemic, the number of participants who had maintained employment following their engagement with DES declined slightly in mid-2020. From May 2020 to August 2020, for example, the number of people who had been working at or above their minimum required hours for 13 weeks (that is, people with 13-week outcomes) were between 14% and 18% lower than the same months in the previous year (a reversal of the pattern seen in previous years). Similar to the decline in jobactive employment outcomes, this decline reflects labour market conditions at the start of the pandemic and coincided with falls in employment.

As at March 2023, the numbers of people with 4-, 13-, 26- and 52-week outcomes were all higher than before the pandemic in February 2020 (DSS 2023).

Age and sex

As at 31 March 2023, males accounted for 48% of mainstream employment service participants, and 51% of DES participants.

As at 31 March 2023, the age profile of participants in these employment services programs differed substantially, with DES participants tending to be older:

  • 18% of mainstream employment service participants were under 25, 43% were aged 25–44, and 39% were aged 45 and over
  • 11% of DES participants were under 25, 32% were aged 25–44 and 57% were 45 and over (Figure 2).

Additionally, of all DES participants, the majority reported either a physical (43%) or psychiatric (41%) condition as their primary disability.

Some of the cohorts examined above may have been targeted by separate employment services and therefore be under-represented in these data.

Figure 2: Number of mainstream employment services and disability employment services participants by age group and sex, as at 31 March 2023

The vertical bar chart shows the number of mainstream employment service and disability employment service participants, for the key characteristics in the tooltip (age group and sex), as at March 2023. The vertical bar chart shows that participation in mainstream employment services was most common among those aged 25–34 and 35–44 (142,300 and 137,300, respectively) and least common among those aged under 25 (115,300). A higher number of females than males participated in mainstream employment services (335,200 and 310,310, respectively). Participation in disability employment services was most common among those aged 45–54 and over 55 (61,200 and 95,400, respectively) and least common among those aged under 25 (30,400). A higher number of males than females participated in disability employment services (140,800 and 132,900, respectively).

Note. Per cent refers to participation in employment services by age group and sex as a proportion of all participants.

Source: Department of Social Services Disability Employment Services – monthly profile;

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Workforce Australia and ParentsNext Caseload Time Series – October 2022 to May 2023.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information about employment services, see: