Key points:

• A range of policy measures have been introduced to protect casual workers affected by the outbreak of COVID-19
• There were just over 2.6 million casual workers employed in Australia in August 2019 who accounted for 24.4 per cent of all employees.
• Tasmania had the highest casual employee share of total employees in August 2019 (at 28.3 per cent) while the Northern Territory had the lowest casual share at 21.2 per cent.
• Retail and accommodation and food services account for a large proportion of all casual workers across Australia. And there are large numbers of casual workers employed in social assistance services, construction, health, education, road transport and other service industries.
• The predominant occupations for casual workers are sales assistants and salespersons, hospitality workers, carers and aides, sales support workers and food preparation assistants.