Employment Projections

Transport for NSW provides projections of employment at the small area (Travel Zone or TZ) level for NSW. The latest version is Travel Zone Projections 2024 (TZP24), released in January 2025.

TZP24 replaces the previously published TZP22.

The projections are developed to support a strategic view of NSW and are aligned with the NSW Government Common Planning Assumptions.

TZP24 Employment Projections are for employed persons by place of work. They are provided by Industry using two breakdowns:

• 33 industry categories (equivalent to the ABS 1-digit Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) codes with the exception of Manufacturing which is at 2-digit level).

• 4 Broad Industry Categories (groupings of the above).

The projections in this release, TZP24, are presented annually from 2021 to 2031 and 5-yearly from 2031 to 2066, and are in TZ21 geography.

Please note, TZP24 is based on best available data as at early 2024, and the projections incorporate results of the National Census conducted by the ABS in August 2021.

Key Data Inputs used:

• TZP24 Workforce Projections

• Census 2021 Place of Work by Destination Zone - ABS

• NSW Intergenerational Report - NSW Treasury

• SA4 Employment by industry projections - Victoria University

• Future Employment Development Database (FEDD) - a custom dataset compiled by TfNSW between August 2023 and February 2024, that presents the number of jobs expected from major projects based on publicly available documents.

For a summary of the TZP24 Projections method please refer to the TZP24 Factsheet.

For more detail on the projection process please refer to the TZP24 Technical Guide.

Additional land use information for population and workforce as well as Travel Zone 2021 boundaries for NSW (TZ21) and concordance files are also available for download on the Open Data Hub.

Visualisations of the employment projections are available on the Transport for NSW Website.

Cautions

The TZP24 dataset represents one view of the future aligned with the NSW Government Common Planning Assumptions for population and employment projections.

The projections are not based on specific assumptions about future new transport infrastructure, but do take into account known land-use developments underway or planned, and strategic plans.

• TZP24 is a strategic state-wide dataset and caution should be exercised when considering results at detailed breakdowns.

• The TZP24 outputs represent a point in time set of projections (as at early -2024).

• The projections are not government targets.

• Travel Zone (TZ) level outputs are projections only and should be used as a guide. As with all small area data, aggregating of travel zone projections to higher geographies leads to more robust results.

• As a general rule, TZ-level projections are illustrative of a possible future only.

• More specific advice about data reliability for the specific variables projected is provided in the “Read Me” page of the Excel format summary spreadsheets on the TfNSW Open Data Hub.

• Caution is advised when comparing TZP24 with the previous set of projections (TZP22) due to addition of new data sources for the most recent years, and adjustments to methodology.

Further cautions and notes can be found in the TZP24 Technical Guide.