The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) supports the public to access the data we hold.
On this page:
View our Data Strategy and Roadmap.
Published statistics
There are various statistics published related to the department’s activities and responsibilities, including:
- Australian Jobs – annual snapshot of the Australian labour market including our workforce, employment, and training.
- Employment services data – provides data related to the delivery of employment services.
- Employment services evaluations – employment service evaluations aim to assess whether program and policy outcomes are being delivered as intended and generate evidence to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Labour market insights – the Jobs and Skills Australia website contains a broad range of labour market products to assist an array of users to better understand the past, present and future Australian labour market.
- National Training Register – includes information on:
- Nationally Recognised Training including training packages, qualifications, skill sets and accredited courses and
- Registered Training Organisations that are approved to deliver nationally recognised training.
- Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) – data available includes:
- Worker participation, including by state, industry and country of origin
- PALM scheme employer participation and status
- Participant survey data – data to assist understand participant employment outcomes and their experience in Workforce Australia employment services.
- Vocational Education and Training (VET) – the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research publishes statistics and makes VET data available for analysis, including:
- VET students and courses
- VET student outcomes from and satisfaction with training
- Apprentices and trainees, including occupations, completion and attrition rates
- Apprentice and trainee satisfaction and employment outcomes
- Employers’ use and views of the VET system
- Workplace Agreements Database and related reports – contains information about every federal collective agreement made since 1991.
- Plus a large range of data sets published on www.data.gov.au
The department support’s access to statistics and data, improving government transparency and policy evaluation. Researchers are encouraged to use Whole of government integrated data assets, to support their research data needs.
For statistical or data requests
To request data that is not publicly available, please complete the General data request form.
The time it takes for us to respond will depend on the type of data you’re requesting and how complex your request is. In general:
- we will register, analyse and assess your request, and provide you with any documents you need to complete
- once you return the completed documents, we will check that your request complies with relevant legislation, including privacy, secrecy and ethical requirements
- we will decide whether the data can be shared, in consultation with the relevant policy and program areas.
Releasing statistical information and data is governed by strict privacy, confidentiality, secrecy and ethical provisions under Commonwealth legislation and DEWR policies.
We assess your data request against a set of criteria to determine how we can best support your needs:
| Criteria | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Consent | Identified or identifiable information is only released where valid consent has been provided by the individuals or entities concerned. |
| Secrecy provisions | Information can only be released in accordance with relevant secrecy provisions and must align with applicable legislation. |
| Anonymity | We apply anonymity checks before approving a request and again before providing any data. |
| Privacy | Data can only be released for the purpose it was originally collected for. |
| Purpose | The request must address a specific research question, or demonstrate clear public benefit. |
After the initial assessment, we send your request to our relevant data, policy and program teams. They will review your request to ensure it is appropriate and may contact you to clarify your data requirements.
If your request requires a data extraction or customised statistics, a cost‑recovery fee may apply. We will provide you with a quote outlining any costs before work begins. Once you accept the quote, we will extract the data within the agreed timeframes and then send you an invoice for payment.
Your quote will include the following components:
| Component | Cost to you |
|---|---|
| Administration | An hourly fee based on the staff working on the initial assessment, processing activities and supply of data. |
| Data services | An hourly fee based on the staff working on your request. This may include customer liaison, clarification of your requirements, data extraction, data integration, de-identification and quality assurance. |
| Data governance | An hourly fee based on the staff working on your request. This may include agreements and assessments. |
| Operational | Costs of any software, materials, licences etc. related to the delivery of the service will be directly passed through to the requestor. |
- Workplace Agreements Database request form
- Freedom of Information requests – Note: Please use the general data request form if your request involves data.
- Media inquiries for the department or minister, you can contact the Media Team by email at media@dewr.gov.au. Please ensure you provide your contact details, including your phone number and the deadline of your story.
Privacy of individuals’ data
The department is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and to the requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act.
We also adhere to applicable Privacy guidance for organisations and government agencies provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
For more information about the department’s privacy policy and practices, see Privacy.
Data confidentiality
Data published by the department is made confidential to protect:
- the privacy of individuals (including Sole Traders) and
- commercial-in-confidence business information (excluding where businesses’ information is in the public domain (including business names attached to a Commonwealth Grant), or if they have given permission for their information to be disclosed).
Confidentiality treatments
Within the department five confidentiality treatments are used:
- Category aggregation – involves combining cells that are likely to break confidentiality into broader categories. For example, combining an individuals’ age into 5 (or 10) year age groups.
- Cell suppression – involves the withholding of cells from publication, protecting privacy. Suppressed cells will be shown as ‘n.p.’ in output. Cell suppression involves suppressing both primary cell(s), that is the cell(s) that break the frequency rule, plus secondary cell(s), that is cell(s) that help to protect the integrity of the primary confidential cell(s).
- Conventional rounding – is rounding all data in a table or set of tables to a specified base, for example 5 or 10.
- 50/50 rounding – is like conventional rounding; however, numbers have a 50% chance of being rounded up or down to the specified base.
- Perturbation – involves a small random adjustment to aggregated data, protecting privacy while maximising the amount of information published.
Data confidentiality for data relating to individuals
The department uses a Frequency or Threshold Rule to ensure aggregated data is confidential, protecting the privacy of individuals.
Some data may be more sensitive and require a higher threshold for the minimum number of contributors, minimising the risk of spontaneous recognition.
Publishing Information about an identifiable business
The department generally only publishes information about an identifiable business where there is a legislative requirement to do so or in response to a question from Parliament.
Data Matching
The department undertakes data matching to assist with understanding program eligibility and / or compliance evaluation.
We only match data when we are legally authorised to do so. Our data matching activities align with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) Guidelines on Data Matching in Australian Government Administration.
For all data matching programs undertaken by the department, we publish data matching protocols (in line with the OAIC’s requirements):
2020 - ATO Data Matching Protocol - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
For further information
For further information on the data released and held by DEWR, including how to access it, our data confidentiality policy and practices, data matching or any other information on this page, please contact us at data@dewr.gov.au.