According to recent research released by Roy Morgan Australia’s full-time workforce has a grand total of 123,510,000 days of annual leave accrued, or an average of just under 21 days leave each.
“It’s almost impossible to fathom: Australia’s six million full-time workers have no less than 123,510,000 days’ annual leave accrued between them! Even when we consider that this equates to just under 21 days each, that’s a lot of leave – more than four working weeks per person.” Angela Smith, Group Account Director, Roy Morgan Research commented.
Ms Smith explained that Male workers account for 69% or 85,357,000 days of total leave owed, or an average 22 days each. The remaining 38,153,000 is owed to female workers, with the individual average being 18 days. Smith went on to add that the proportion of workers with no leave (9%) or less than four weeks’ leave (41%) amounts to half the full-time workforce, this leaves 11% of workers with between four and five weeks’ leave up their sleeves, and 28% with more than five weeks due. A further 11% can’t say how much leave they’ve accumulated.

Annual leave owed to Australia’s full-time workers

“With the average full-time leave allowance being four work weeks per annum, this would suggest that people are not taking much time off. Yet contrary to what their leave balances might suggest, our data reveals that Australia’s full-time workers do take holidays. In the last 12 months, 75% went on at least one trip.” Ms Smith commented.
Ms Smith pointed out that workers in certain industries tend to have a higher level of annual leave accrued than others, with those employed in Wholesaling (25 days), Public Administration and Defence (24 days), Agriculture (24 days) and Transport and Storage (24 days) being especially likely to have accumulated substantial leave balances. With average leave balances of 15 and 16 days respectively, construction and communication workers tend to be among those who actually make use of their leave.

Average annual leave balance by industry worked in

“What’s more, 80% are planning to take a trip in the next 12 months. Considering the volume of annual leave between them, this represents a great opportunity for destination marketers and tourism operators to target these people and offer suggestions on how and where to spend their leave!” Ms Smith commented.