How big is the Australian contact centre industry?
102,373 Australians work in dedicated contact centre roles, and 213,470 once you add the banking, insurance and customer service management roles that sit alongside them.
Here are the real numbers from the ABS Census, what they include, and the people benchmarks that tell you how your operation compares.
- 102,373people in dedicated contact centre roles
- 213,470in contact centre, related and customer service management roles
- 1.42Min Australia’s wider customer-facing workforce
- 25%average frontline attrition in 2026
Who actually counts as “the contact centre industry”?
Contact centres don’t sit in one industry, so no single ABS category captures them. We build the number up from the occupations people actually report in the Census.
That gives you three honest answers, depending on the question you’re asking.
Dedicated contact centre roles
Operators, team leaders, managers, information officers, telemarketers and switchboard operators.
Use this when you mean people whose job is the contact centre.
Contact centre and customer service roles
Adds 71,137 bank and insurance service staff who mostly work in contact centres, and 39,960 customer service managers.
Use this for the size of the profession ACXPA serves.
Wider customer-facing workforce
Adds retail, hospitality and reception roles. It shows how many Australians serve customers for a living.
It is not a count of contact centre staff.
What makes up the 213,470?
- 102,373 dedicated contact centre roles (48.0%)
- 71,137 banking and insurance service roles (33.3%)
- 39,960 customer service managers (18.7%)
And how does that sit inside the 1.42 million?
- 213,470 contact centre and customer service roles (15.0%)
- 834,377 retail (58.7%)
- 220,387 hospitality (15.5%)
- 153,227 reception and enquiry (10.8%)
Which jobs make up a contact centre?
Information officers and contact centre operators make up 85.1% of the 102,373 dedicated roles. Team leaders and managers together number 6,785.
Persons, 2021 Census. Information officers answer customer enquiries in person, by phone or online.
Where do contact centre and customer service people work?
New South Wales and Victoria hold 62.0% of the 213,470 contact centre and customer service roles. Queensland is the next biggest.
Place of usual residence. Other Territories (40) not shown.
How does your attrition and absenteeism compare?
These are the latest Australian benchmarks, from the 2026 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report by Smaart Recruitment. It draws on more than 800 responses from over 250 onshore contact centres.
- 25%
Frontline attrition
Down from 29% in 2025, the best result in recent years.
- 12.0%
Average absenteeism
Up on 2025, but below the 2023 peak of 13.4%.
- 49%
Leave for salary
Still the top reason people leave, down from 57% in 2025.
Want to see who delivers the best service?
Headcount tells you how big the industry is. It doesn’t tell you how good it is.
That’s what ACXPA measures every quarter, independently, using the Contact Centre CX Standards.
Australian Call Centre Rankings
Quarterly, independent results for real brands across seven sectors, each scored with the Contact Centre CX Score.
See the latest rankings →Contact Centre CX Standards
ACXPA’s definition of global best practice, covering how easy you are to reach as well as the conversation itself.
Explore the Standards →Call Centre Hub
Practical tools, calculators and guides organised by role and problem, so you can act on what the numbers tell you.
Open the Call Centre Hub →How do we count, and can you check it?
Yes. The workforce figures come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Population and Housing (TableBuilder), counting persons by 6-digit occupation and state of usual residence.
ACXPA grouped 40 occupations into the six groups below. The ABS randomly adjusts small cells to protect privacy, so small numbers may not add exactly. Jobs and Skills Australia publishes the same Census counts for individual occupations if you want to cross-check.
| Group | NSW | VIC | QLD | SA | WA | TAS | NT | ACT | Other Terr. | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated contact centre roles | 30,598 | 29,230 | 20,307 | 8,162 | 8,845 | 2,455 | 646 | 2,071 | 17 | 102,373 |
| Banking and insurance service roles | 27,221 | 20,072 | 11,386 | 4,858 | 5,536 | 1,083 | 305 | 680 | 10 | 71,137 |
| Customer service managers | 14,414 | 10,836 | 7,115 | 2,433 | 3,576 | 618 | 285 | 671 | 13 | 39,960 |
| Contact centre and customer service total | 72,233 | 60,138 | 38,808 | 15,453 | 17,957 | 4,156 | 1,236 | 3,422 | 40 | 213,470 |
| Retail | 239,429 | 224,992 | 178,397 | 63,042 | 88,257 | 20,021 | 6,371 | 13,707 | 138 | 834,377 |
| Reception and enquiry | 45,131 | 39,505 | 32,790 | 10,904 | 17,536 | 3,301 | 1,456 | 2,581 | 38 | 153,227 |
| Hospitality | 60,894 | 56,572 | 47,978 | 16,895 | 24,981 | 5,899 | 2,090 | 5,011 | 70 | 220,387 |
| Wider customer-facing workforce | 417,687 | 381,207 | 297,973 | 106,294 | 148,731 | 33,377 | 11,153 | 24,721 | 286 | 1,421,461 |
See every occupation in each group
Dedicated contact centre roles
- Information Officer51,069
- Call or Contact Centre Operator36,058
- Telemarketer4,902
- Call or Contact Centre Manager3,848
- Call or Contact Centre Team Leader2,937
- Switchboard Operator2,096
- Call or Contact Centre Information Clerks nfd1,376
- Call or Contact Centre and Customer Service Managers nfd87
Banking and insurance service roles
- Bank Worker41,997
- Insurance Consultant28,328
- Financial and Insurance Clerks nfd725
- Insurance, Money Market and Statistical Clerks nfd87
Customer service managers
- Customer Service Manager39,960
Retail
- Sales Assistant (General)514,084
- Retail Manager (General)183,465
- Checkout Operator93,047
- Retail Supervisor33,271
- Sales Assistants and Salespersons nfd5,836
- Sales Assistants and Salespersons nec4,356
- Retail Managers nfd255
- Checkout Operators and Office Cashiers nfd34
- Other Sales Assistants and Salespersons nfd29
Reception and enquiry
- Medical Receptionist71,536
- Receptionist (General)70,855
- Hotel or Motel Receptionist9,902
- Inquiry Clerks and Receptionists nfd630
- Receptionists nfd304
Hospitality
- Waiter86,874
- Bar Attendant45,599
- Cafe Worker43,533
- Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers nec22,084
- Hotel Service Manager7,390
- Hospitality Workers nfd6,998
- Hospitality Workers nec3,458
- Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers nfd2,712
- Doorperson or Luggage Porter818
- Bar Useful or Busser647
- Other Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers nfd226
- Other Hospitality Workers nfd48
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2021, TableBuilder, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Grouping and analysis by ACXPA. Attrition, absenteeism and reasons for leaving: Smaart Recruitment, 2026 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report. The ABS will start releasing 2026 Census data from June 2027, with occupation data planned for October 2027.
Questions people ask about the industry
How many people work in Australian contact centres?
The 2021 Census counted 102,373 people in dedicated contact centre roles, such as operators, team leaders, managers and information officers.
Add the banking and insurance service roles that mostly sit in contact centres, plus customer service managers, and the total is 213,470.
Where does the 1.4 million (or 1.2 million) figure come from?
Figures of that size count the wider customer-facing workforce: retail, hospitality and reception staff as well as contact centre teams. On the 2021 Census, that wider group is 1,421,461 people.
It's a useful measure of how many Australians serve customers for a living. It is not a count of contact centre staff, which is the 213,470 figure above.
What is the average contact centre attrition rate in Australia?
Average frontline attrition was 25% in 2026, down from 29% in 2025, according to the 2026 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report by Smaart Recruitment.
Salary was the top reason people gave for leaving (49%, down from 57%). Read our summary of the report.
What is the average absenteeism rate in Australian contact centres?
Average absenteeism was 12.0% in 2026, up on the previous year but below the 2023 peak of 13.4% (Smaart Recruitment, 2026 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report).
Use the WFM Hub to see what absenteeism does to your staffing numbers.
What's the difference between a call centre and a contact centre?
"Call centre" usually means a voice-first operation measured mostly on speed and volume. "Contact centre" reflects service across voice, email, chat, messaging and social.
The shift matters because quality measurement, workforce planning and coaching all change once the work moves beyond calls.
Which industries use contact centres?
Almost all of them. In the 2021 Census, public administration employed the most contact centre operators (22%), followed by health care and social assistance (14.5%), according to Jobs and Skills Australia.
Banks, insurers, utilities, telcos, retailers, universities and travel companies all run them too. That's why ACXPA defines a contact centre by the work it does, not the building it sits in.
When will these figures be updated?
The ABS will start releasing 2026 Census data from June 2027. Occupation data, which these workforce figures rely on, comes in the second release, planned for October 2027. We'll rebuild this page with the new figures as soon as it lands.
Attrition and absenteeism benchmarks are refreshed each year when the Best Practice Report is published.
