Government and community services

The Northern Territory's (NT) government and community services combined sector is a major contributor to the gross state product and employment. The government and community services category comprises of public administration and safety, education and training, and health care and social assistance. The outputs from these sectors are mostly supplied and/or funded by the public sector, including Commonwealth, NT and local governments. They also include output from private providers of education, health, aged care and other community services as well as contributions made by the defence industry in the NT.

Economic contribution | Contribution to employment 

Government and community services is a major contributor of the gross state product (GSP) and employment in the NT. The government and community services combined sector comprises public administration and safety, education and training, and health care and social assistance. The outputs from these sectors are predominantly supplied and or funded by the public sector, including Commonwealth, NT and local governments. This industry also includes output from private providers of education, health, aged care and other community services as well as contributions made by the defence industry, which is discussed further in the Defence webpage.

The government and community services industry is a significant contributor to the NT economy in terms of its contribution to GSP and employment. Historically, this industry contributes to at least a fifth of NT GSP and over a third of NT employment.

Economic contribution

In 2021-22:

• the combined sector contributed $6.8 billion to the NT’s GSP in 2021‑22, representing an increase of 2.5% from the previous year
• it also accounted for 22.8% of the NT’s GSP, which was the third highest proportion across the jurisdictions behind the Australian Capital Territory (45.7%) and Tasmania (25.2%).  (Chart 1). The NT’s share of GSP was steady over the financial year, and is in line with the 10-year average
• of the industries, public administration and safety services made the largest contribution of 10.4% or $3.1 billion to GSP, representing an decrease of 1.9% from 2020-21
• nationally the combined industry increased by 2.9 % to $379.8 billion, accounting for 17.3% of national gross domestic product (GDP), with the health care and social assistance sector making up the largest contribution at 7.6%.

Contribution to employment

In 2022-23:

• the combined industry employed 57,936 persons (a decrease of 2.4% from the previous year), which accounted for 41.2% of total employment, above the 10‑year annual average share of 39.9% (Chart 2)
• of these, 34.1% were employed in public administration and safety, 39.8% in health care and social assistance, and 26.1% in education and training
• the national proportion has trended upwards since the early 2000s, however, its share to total employment (29.9%) remains less than the NT share.