NIGHT SHIFTS IN AUSTRALIA: How Many People Work in the Night-Time Economy? A Review of Current Evidence

How many people work at night? This apparently simple question hides deep complexities in accounting for night shift workers in our cities and depicting their conditions across the country. This evidence paper draws attention to the importance of measuring and understanding nocturnal workforces in Australia. We do so in light of increasing attention to the night time economy (NTE) within Australian cities and major regional centres, and the growing success of NTE governance initiatives internationally in general. Despite the rise in interest in better managing Australian cities after dark, we find that there is limited availability of data depicting the temporal characteristics of the Australian economy and labour market. We stress these problems are not of a statistical and academic nature, but an essential challenge in recognising the size, importance and contribution that night workers have to our cities, and the country’s economy. Ultimately, better assessing how many work at night, and in what conditions, can pave the way for engaging more effectively with night workers, understanding their importance, and crucially giving them a better voice in the future of Australian cities. With some degree of confidence, we argue here that upwards of a million people could be conservatively counted as night workers in Australia. However, we note in our study that the overall number of night workers is probably much bigger. We argued we should be going beyond ‘core’ sectors (like entertainment and hospitality) of the NTE and capture major nocturnal activities in the likes of logistics, care, and transport, for instance. We also stress current data fails to capture domestic, informal, and volunteer work that takes place after dark.