The department’s statistics are best on permanent and fixed-term contract staff. It lets us compare employment levels on March 31 2021 with the same day in 2020. It shows a net loss of 9,050 permanent and fixed-term contract employees, a 6.9% decline. This is only the third decrease in university staff since 1989. It’s much bigger than the previous largest fall of 1.8% in 1997. Casual staff fell by 4,258 full-time equivalents in 2020 compared to 2019, a 17.5% decrease. In data going back to 1991, all previous casual staff decreases have been by less than 1%.
