Sharp differences in employment patterns have developed across Sydney, with half of workers in some suburbs doing part-time hours.
Neighbourhoods with the highest share of part-timers were Katoomba (50 per cent), Auburn (48 per cent) and Haymarket (47 per cent), analysis of census data reveals.
But in some inner-city areas, the share of part-time workers was just one in five. The Sydney suburbs with the lowest share of part-timers 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 lower rates of part-time work – in the city’s inner west, eastern suburbs and lower north shore – all had high house prices.
“In those areas, many households need to be working full-time to afford living there,” he said. “It’s a real housing affordability and stage of life story.”
Housing is more affordable in many regions with a higher share of part-time work.
The Blue Mountains and Central Coast regions, which both had relatively high rates of part-time work, also had many older residents.
“In those areas, semi-retired residents have probably helped to drive up the number [of part-timers],” Rawnsley said.
Alex Annetta balances a 23-hour-a-week job as a fitness instructor at the InnerFit gym in Leichhardt with being a guitarist for a band called Royale with Cheese, which does 1990s cover songs.
“The flexibility of part-time works well for me,” he said. “I know my income will be stable even if the band has a slow month.”
Annetta, 31, also appreciates the diversity that comes with part-time work.
“I like having variety at work and when every week is a bit different – it’s definitely like that with these two jobs,” he said.
About four in every five fitness instructors work part-time, a much larger proportion than for most jobs. Other occupations with a high share of part-time workers are waiters (88 per cent), university tutors (88 per cent) and cafe workers (87 per cent).
Jobs with a low share of part-timers include police officers (3 per cent), school principals (5 per cent) and miners (7 per cent).
The overall proportion of part-time jobs across the economy has grown steadily since the late 1970s, although the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic briefly reversed that trend.
The 2021 census showed one-third of workers across Greater Sydney were part-time (33.3 per cent), a little lower than the national share of 36 per cent.
But there is a stark gender gap in part-time work: nearly two-thirds of part-timers in NSW (64 per cent) are women, and that gender split has barely shifted in decades.
What are the average full-time hours in your line of work? Type your job into the box below to find out. If you follow the prompts to our visual story you can also explore the average part-time hours for your line of work, its ratio of full-time and part-time workers, the average hours people work in your area, and more.
Byron Bay, on the far north coast of NSW, had the state’s highest share of part-time workers at 59 per cent.
It is one of 10 suburbs where more than half the working population was employed on a part-time basis. 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 across all their jobs over the previous week, although some results may have been affected by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.
Some jobs tend to have shorter hours during the winter months, which affects the data. Lifeguards rank 18th when it comes to having the highest percentage of part-time workers, but if the census had been carried out during the height of summer, then the results may have been different.
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