Australia’s hourly-work economy contracted for a second consecutive month in September, with businesses across hospitality, retail and services cutting the hours available to workers as cost pressures continue to squeeze frontline industries, according to Deputy’s September 2026 Hourly Work Index.
Hours are shrinking
Total hours worked across healthcare, hospitality, retail and services fell 1.3% in September, following a 2.7% decline in August. It’s the first back-to-back monthly decline since Deputy began tracking the Index in January, breaking a pattern of alternating monthly gains and falls seen earlier in the year.
The cut matters because workers in these sectors are already well below a full-time workload of around 164 hours a month. In September, average monthly hours per employee ranged from just 63 to 67 hours across the four sectors.
Hospitality saw the sharpest pullback, with hours per employee down 3.2% and shifts per employee down 3.0%. Retail hours fell 1.9%, services fell 1.0%, and healthcare was the only sector to record an increase, up 2.1%.
The reduced hours are likely contributing to a rise in poly-employment reported separately by the ABS. As fewer hours are available in a worker’s main job, more Australians are taking on additional work to cover the shortfall. ABS data shows 6.9% of employed Australians now hold multiple jobs, with workers aged 20 to 24 the most likely to do so.
Notice is improving, unevenly
Against that backdrop, one measure is moving in a better direction. Workers received an average of 8.5 days’ notice before a shift in September, the highest level recorded this year and up from 5.7 days in January.
That improvement isn’t reaching everyone equally. Baby Boomers received 11.3 days’ notice on average, compared with 7.9 days for Gen Z workers. The 3.4-day gap has widened from 2.6 days in August, even though every generation received more notice than the month before. Gen Z received the least notice of any adult generation in healthcare, hospitality and services.
Notice also varies sharply by industry. Healthcare workers received 14.3 days’ notice on average, compared with 9.8 days in retail, 8.5 days in services and 6.7 days in hospitality.
Why this matters for retention
Emma Seymour, Deputy’s Chief Financial Officer, says the widening generational gap carries real consequences for the workers least able to absorb it.
“Rosters are being finalised earlier than at any other point this year, with workers receiving an average of 8.5 days’ notice in September, up from 5.7 days in January. But that certainty is not being shared evenly,” Seymour said. “Baby Boomers received 11.3 days’ notice on average, compared with 7.9 days for Gen Z workers. That matters because Gen Z are the generation most likely to be juggling multiple jobs, often with the least financial buffer. When someone is coordinating two or three rosters to make rent, advance notice is not simply convenient. It is what allows them to make the week work. Giving younger workers greater certainty does not add to a business’s wage bill. It is one of the simplest, most practical ways to support retention.”
The sector data points to a mixed picture heading into the final quarter. Retail recorded its strongest hiring month of the year, with new hires up 9.4%, potentially an early build for Christmas trading, but those new hires are being offered fewer average hours. Healthcare, meanwhile, saw both hours and turnover rise, with terminations up 43.1%.
For small business owners juggling their own cost pressures, the data points to a low-cost lever worth testing: finalising rosters earlier, particularly for younger staff who are most likely to be stacking multiple jobs around a single shift.