Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors, recently published the following chart showing the outsized contribution of the non-market sector (i.e., public services, healthcare & social assistance, and education) to overall job growth.
Of the 926,425 jobs created between Q1 2023 and Q3 2025, 637,273 (69%) were in the non-market sector that is primarily government funded.
This was despite the non-market sector comprising only 31.5% of total Australian jobs, according to analysis from CBA:
Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released quarterly labour market data showing the explosive growth of non-market sector jobs over recent years, driven by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
In the year to November 2025, Australia’s job market expanded by 179,900 jobs, of which 186,400 were in the non-market sectors of Healthcare & Social Assistance (112,200), Education (51,200), and Public Administration & Safety (22,900):
Between the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020 and November 2025, Australia’s labour market expanded by 1,729,000, with 948,700 of these jobs in the non-market sectors of Healthcare & Social Assistance (587,700), Education (198,400), and Public Administration & Safety (162,500):
Most of this non-market job growth occurred after the Albanese government took office in May 2022:
Between May 2022 and November 2025, 1,152,000 jobs were created, with 651,670 of those in the non-market sectors of Healthcare & Social Assistance (349,300), Education (187,300), and Public Administration & Safety (115,100).
As Alex Joiner illustrated in December, the unemployment rate was significantly lower in the non-market sector (1.7%) than the market sector (5.4%):
Worryingly, this government-funded expansion of non-market jobs has driven the recent decline in the nation’s productivity:
As a result, Australia’s productivity growth since the pandemic has ranked near the very bottom of the OECD:
Australia’s governments need to pull back and stop crowding out the private sector.
