Workforce Overview
Local Governments play a significant role in building and maintaining cohesive and connected communities. This industry-sector has a broad remit, such as local infrastructure, town planning and land development. The breadth of these core services demonstrates that Local Government is an industry-sector that employs occupations from across the labour market, requiring a range of skills and training to support this workforce.
There are 537 Local Governments across Australia which are primarily concentrated on the east coast. Within these Local Governments, the top employing occupation is administration, with 151,000 employed across Australia.
Occupational shortages are also present within the Local Government industry-sector, in particular, engineers, town planners, building surveyors, environmental health officers, accountants and human resources professionals.
These shortages can be caused by regionality, competition for labour and recruitment and retention efforts, all of which are discussed in the Workforce Insights Report.
Workforce Megatrends
In 2024, Public Skills Australia identified nine megatrends impacting across the Public Safety and Government industries. A brief overview of the key findings from 2024 are detailed below
Identified Challenges
Access to Training
Local Government workforces in regional, rural and remote areas are often limited in where and how they can access training needs. This includes limited access to RTOs that offer the LGA Local Government Training Package, directly impacting the uptake of this Training Package
Skills Gaps
The Local Government industry-sector is facing significant occupational shortages in certain occupations that require long training pathways, such as urban and regional planners, prompting growing interest in training products that require shorter timeframes for delivery for faster upskilling of priority areas. One key occupational area experiencing significant skills gaps is emergency management.
Resourcing and Recruitment
Access to adequate and affordable housing and social infrastructure remain key challenges in recruiting Local Government workforces in regional, rural and remote areas. Financial constraints imposed by other tiers of government also impact on the ability of Local Governments to sustain resourcing.
Strategy
Skill Set Development for Priority Skilling Areas
Identify whether any existing training products can be used for priority skilling needs in Local Government. Should no training products exist, training products may be developed to support the priority skilling needs in Local Government.
Local Government Training Package
The LGA Local Government Training Package (the training package) provides training and development for employees working in Local Government roles. It includes a range of qualifications and units of competency that cover aspects of local government operations, such as governance, community engagement, environmental management, and regulatory services. The training package aims to ensure that local government employees have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their roles effectively.
As a Jobs and Skills Council, Public Skills Australia plays an important role in maintaining this training package.
Click here to learn more about the LGA Local Government Training Package.
Members of Public Skills Australia from this industry-sector
Existing Industry Strategies
Government Initiatives
References
LGA training package enrolment reference: National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), Total VET students and courses 2023: DataBuilder [data set], 2023, accessed 20 February 2025.
Disclaimer
This data has been collected through consultation with industry-sector representatives as part of the Workforce Insight Report 2025: Local Government. These figures represent a snapshot in time and are subject to change. Public Skills Australia Limited has made every effort to ensure that the information and data contained in this report are accurate, up to date and have been sourced appropriately. Our organisation will update these figures annually as part of its Workforce Planning function.