More than a fifth of APS tech workers are nearing retirement, posing a “significant challenge” to project delivery and keeping legacy systems running, according to a new report.
The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) released the Australian Public Service (APS) Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-2030 last week, a “call to action to attract, develop and retain data, digital and cyber talent in a unified and strategic way across the APS”.
The plan identifies a number of challenges and risks that the APS is facing when it comes to tech talent, including a persistent skills gap, a lack of diversity, and difficulties in competing with the private sector.
The APSC also identified the ageing tech workforce within the public service as a major risk to the successful delivery of projects and meeting a range of government plans, including the Data and Digital Government Strategy and the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy.
The ageing tech workforce
According to the report, more than 20 per cent of the ongoing public service ICT and digital solutions employees are nearing retirement age, defined as being over 55 years old, and the number of tech workers retirements has increased steadily over the last five years.
“APS agencies highlighted during consultation that age-related retirements pose a significant challenge to delivering digital projects, as many of those retiring are responsible for supporting critical systems,” the APSC report said.
“Ensuring appropriate knowledge transfer practices are in place will be important.”
More than 3,500 APS tech workers reached retirement age last year, and eight existing systems reached technical retirement.
These figures are forecast to increase rapidly, with an expected 3,741 tech professionals to reach retirement age this year and 30 systems hitting technical retirement.
By 2029 these figures are predicted to be 5,223 and 37 respectively.
To help address this, the APSC has called for improved retirement guidance in order to improve the “retention of critical knowledge” through the development of better practice guidance, along with a toolkit for agencies around retirement intentions, workplace flexibility options and succession planning.
There have been ongoing calls for better government support for older workers and efforts to address age discrimination in the workplace, with more than 15 per cent of the Australian population now being over 65 years old.
Talent shortages
The increase in retirements is compounded by the continuing talent shortage when it comes to tech roles and difficulties in hiring and retaining staff in these fields, the report found.
“Currently agencies are unable to keep up with the demand generated by new and existing digital projects and one-quarter of early digital proposals coming forward have listed workforce risk as a major delivery concern,” it said.
“Like the data and digital domains, cybersecurity faces a significant skills shortage.
“The rapid pace of technological advancements has outstripped the current skill sets of the workforce, with traditional recruitment processes struggling to keep up with demand.
“An ageing workforce worsens these challenges, limiting the APS’ ability to adapt to the digital environment.”
This has led to many agencies listing their digital projects as being at risk due to “critical skills shortages”.
According to the report, the most in-demand tech roles in the APS include data architect, data analyst, software engineer, business analyst, cyber analyst and cyber incident responder.
These are similar to the most in-demand tech roles across Australia, and the report said the public service is struggling to compete with the private sector when it comes to salaries.
To address this, the APSC has called on the public service to make efforts to improve geographic and gender diversity within its tech workforce.
The public service tech team is “disproportionately concentrated” in Canberra, it said, and this is “creating significant barriers to accessing diverse and in-demand talent”.
First Nations people and women are also underrepresented across the tech workforce compared to the overall public service, the report found.
