This is an update of 2016 briefing paper, The Rising Tide of Insecure Employment 2016. Like the 2016 version, this paper provides an analysis of the most recent Australian university staffing data utilising a variety of sources.

This updated analysis shows that the rising tide of insecure employment evident in the data up to 2015 has persisted and become worse. The rising tide has turned into a flood and there does not seem to be any signs of this abating anytime soon as it inundates our university workforce.

The latest WGEA data shows that only just over one in three (35.6 %) of people employed at universities enjoy secure ongoing work.