Australian workers are heading into the summer break with a massive stockpile of unused annual leave, collectively sitting on 209 million days of accrued holidays, new data from research firm Roy Morgan shows.
The near-record total is a lingering consequence of the pandemic years, when travel restrictions kept many Australians from holidaying overseas or even interstate. Compared to two years ago, the national leave balance has risen by 9 million days, or 4.5 per cent. Over a five-year period, the increase is even more dramatic: 60 million extra days, representing a 39.5 per cent jump.
However, Roy Morgan notes that the consistent growth in unused leave has recently stalled. The reason is a noticeable shift in Australia’s employment structure: full-time positions have declined this year, while part-time and casual roles have increased, reducing the rate at which workers accumulate annual leave.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said the change reflects both the evolving nature of the job market and the ongoing financial pressures impacting households.
“Annual leave balances soared from 2020 to 2023 and continued rising through 2023–2025 during the prolonged cost-of-living crisis,” Levine said. “Only recently have the increases slowed, due to changes in employment composition.”
The data shows 7.6 million Australians—just over 51 per cent of all paid workers—have at least two weeks of leave saved. But a significant cohort of 5.2 million workers (34.7 per cent) have no annual leave at all, largely due to casual or gig-based employment. When that group is removed from the calculation, the remaining workers are owed an average of 20 days of leave, roughly equivalent to a full four-week holiday.
Despite the slowdown in growth, Australia’s vast leave reserve remains economically influential. Approximately 1.5 million workers are holding more than five weeks of accrued leave, suggesting many may be postponing holidays due to financial stress, job insecurity or rising travel costs.
The analysis comes as travel experts predict a significant uplift in domestic and international holiday bookings for 2026, with many Australians looking to leverage public holidays and long weekends to maximise time away from work.
