Part-time work dominates in suburbs such as Katoomba and Auburn
Sharp differences in employment patterns emerged across Sydney; In some suburbs, half the workers work part time.
The neighborhoods with the highest proportion of part-time workers were Katoomba (50 percent), Auburn (48 percent) and Haymarket (47 percent). census data reveals.
However, in some inner-city areas the proportion of part-time workers was only one in five. The Sydney suburbs with the lowest proportion of part-time workers were Erskineville in the inner west (19 per cent), St Leonards on the lower north shore (19 per cent) and Woolloomooloo in the inner east (21 per cent).
KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said areas of Sydney with low rates of part-time work – the city’s inner west, eastern suburbs and lower north shore – had higher house prices.
“Many households in these areas need to work full time to afford to live there,” he said. “This is one stage in a true housing affordability and life story.”
Housing is more affordable in many areas where part-time work is higher.
The Blue Mountains and Central Coast regions, both of which have relatively high rates of part-time work, also had large numbers of older residents.
“Semi-retired residents in these areas probably helped increase the numbers.” [of part-timers]said Rawnsley.
Alex Annetta balances her 23-hour-a-week job as a fitness instructor InnerFit gym I was working as a guitarist in a band in Leichhardt. Cheese RoyaleCovering songs of the 1990s.
“The flexibility of working part-time works well for me,” he said. “Even if the band has a slow month, I know my income will be stable.”
Annetta, 31, also appreciates the variety that comes with working part-time.
“I love having diversity in the workplace, and the fact that every week is a little different is definitely the case with both of these jobs,” she said.
Nearly four in five fitness instructors work part-time; This ratio is much larger than most jobs. Other professions with a high proportion of part-time workers are waiters (88 percent), university teachers (88 percent) and cafe workers (87 percent).
Jobs with low proportions of part-time workers include police officers (3 percent), school principals (5 percent) and miners (7 percent).
The overall proportion of part-time jobs across the economy has risen steadily since the late 1970s, but disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic briefly reversed this trend.
The 2021 census showed a third of workers in Greater Sydney were working part-time (33.3%), just below the national share of 36 per cent.
But there is a significant gender gap in part-time work: almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of part-time workers in NSW are women, and this gender gap has remained virtually unchanged for decades.
What are the average full-time working hours in your line of work? Type your business in the box below to find out. If you follow the instructions in our visual story, you can also discover the average part-time hours in your work area, the ratio of full-time and part-time workers, the average working hours of people in your area, and more.
Byron Bay, on the northernmost coast of NSW, had the highest proportion of part-time workers in the state at 59 per cent.
It is one of the 10 suburbs where more than half of the working population is employed part-time. The others were Mullumbimby, Ocean Shores, Bellingen, Suffolk Park, Gwynneville, Nambucca Heads, Birmingham Gardens, Keiraville and Bangalow.
The census, collected in August 2021, asked people to estimate how many hours they worked at all their jobs in the previous week; however, some results may have been affected by disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.
Some jobs tend to have shorter working hours during the winter months, which affects the data. Lifeguards rank 18th among those with the highest percentage of part-time workers; However, if the census had been conducted during the peak summer season, the results might have been different.
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