STUDY: Aussie workers have 146 million days of annual leave just waiting to be used

Leave on paper note stick on the calendar of December for year end holidays concept
By Travel Weekly


The summer holidays are almost here, and new research has found that Australians in paid employment have over 146 million days’ worth of annual leave banked up.

This figure is up 11 million days (or 8.3 per cent) on a year ago, according to Roy Morgan. Furthermore, the accrued annual leave equates to an average of just over 16 days for each paid worker in Australia.

The study also found that only 10 per cent of Australia’s paid workers have no annual leave owed to them, while a further 13 per cent have up to two weeks accrued.

Nearly a quarter of paid workers (23 per cent) have between two and four weeks of annual leave accrued, and another 10th have around a month owed to them. More than a fifth of paid workers (21 per cent) have at least five weeks’ worth of unused annual leave.

Annual leave owed to Australia’s paid workers by length of time (source: Roy Morgan)

However, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said that despite Aussies having accrued the largest total amount of annual leave for a number of years, few people are planning on using it.

“Accrued annual leave in Australia is the highest since 2015; however, the recently released Roy Morgan Holiday Intention Report shows that fewer people are planning on taking holidays than a year ago.

“Now, 13.7 million Australians (66.2 per cent) intend to take a holiday in the next year, compared to 13.8 million (67.8 per cent) a year ago. The decline is being driven by fewer Australians planning on a domestic holiday, which is now at a two-decade low.”

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