Job Outlook provides, for each occupation, data on employment characteristics, trends and prospects, links to vacancies on Australian JobSearch and education and training courses on myfuture, and information on knowledge, skills and abilities from the United States O*Net website.  Graphs and tables are also presented for clusters of occupations.  Selected occupation-specific links and reports are presented in Reports and Links. 

Occupation and Industry Classification

The occupations in Job Outlook are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), developed jointly by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Statistics New Zealand (SNZ).  The 353 occupations in Job Outlook (titles unit groups in ANZSCO) are grouped into 48 clusters of occupations, to provide statistical comparisons for related occupations, and eight major groups:

• Managers
• Professionals
• Technicians and Trades Workers
• Community and Personal Service Workers
• Sales Workers
• Machinery Operators and Drivers
• Labourers

Industries in Job Outlook are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006, developed by the ABS and SNZ.

Searching for Occupations

Alphabetical

Select from an alphabetical listing of occupations.

Keyword

Type into the keyword search field a word relating to the occupation you are interested in (for example, ‘mechanic’) and then select an occupation from the results of the search (such as ‘Motor Mechanic’).   

Category

Select from the list of occupational clusters, then choose one of the occupations in that cluster.

Industry

Select an industry and you will be presented with a list of the main employing occupations in that industry.  Further information on industry employment trends and prospects is available on skillsinfo.

Good Prospects

DEEWR rates prospects for occupations as good, average or below average - this list provides links to occupations assessed as having good prospects.

Skill Shortages

Skill shortage research is undertaken by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) to define occupations. The research focuses on professions, associate professions and trades, although a number of occupations in the management group are also included in the program. Results of this research are published on the Workplace website.

Career Quiz

This quiz will help you identify what types of work you most like doing.  Each of the 15 questions lists six tasks that people do.  Select the work you'd enjoy doing most, making sure to choose the task you prefer doing more than all the others in the group - no matter how qualified you are to do that job. Then select See result to view the occupations you are most likely to enjoy or be good at.

Data Sources

Most of the statistics in Job Outlook are based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) monthly labour force survey and supplementary surveys, and are subject to sampling variability.  Relative standard errors (sampling errors relative to the size of the estimates) are very high for small occupations.  Occupational and industry data are only available for the mid month of each quarter (February, May, August and November).The time series data have been seasonally adjusted and trended within DEEWR.

The data presented in Job Outlook are averages for all Australia, and may not represent the characteristics of occupations in particular regions.  Projected employment growth for occupations will vary between regions, depending on regional economic growth and the regional industry base.  Job prospects will vary between regions and individual workers, depending on the specialised skills and personal attributes being sought by employers.

Some numbers in Job Outlook have been rounded to whole numbers and apparent differences in figures may reflect this rounding.  This may result in figures not appearing on graphs (rounded down to zero), yet the graph indicating a small positive figure. 

Overview

Job descriptions, skill levels, tasks and job titles are based on the information contained in the ANZSCO publication, edited slightly in some instances.  A list of associated occupations is also provided.  The job titles include specific occupations,  specialisations and alternative titles for the occupation.

Job prospects

Job prospects ratings for the medium term (to 2014-15) are provided for each occupation.  Job prospects may vary over time and between different occupations due to several factors: projected and actual employment growth; whether occupations are in growth industries; unemployment; vacancy trends; whether there are skill shortages for the occupation; the number of people changing jobs but not changing occupations (job changing); and the number of workers leaving an occupation (job openings).
Job turnover (job changing and job openings) provides most job vacancies, and is typically higher in less skilled occupations.  Even for occupations where employment is declining, job turnover provides opportunities for jobseekers.

Job prospects are rated as GOOD, AVERAGE or BELOW AVERAGE.  These are indicative ratings and may vary from region to region, and also depend on the skills and personal attributes of individual workers.  There may be good job prospects for some individuals, and in some regions, for occupations rated as having below average or limited prospects.  Qualified workers in occupations with good prospects may have difficulty in finding employment because of the specialised skills, experience and personal attributes being sought by employers, or lower regional demand for the occupation.

Although care has been taken to produce these assessments, they must be used with caution. Individuals need to carefully assess their individual circumstances when considering the information.  As noted, the prospects information is indicative and individual and regional job prospects may change rapidly and unexpectedly.

DEEWR prepares projections of employment growth for occupations, currently to the year 2014-15.  These are based on several factors: occupational projections provided by the Centre of Policy Studies (CoPS) at Monash University (from the MONASH model) and Access Economics; actual employment growth in recent years; industry employment growth and prospects; vacancy trends; industry surveys; and qualitative information on occupational developments from employers, recruitment agencies, employer organisations, education and training bodies and labour market intermediaries.

The annual growth cutoffs for the deciles, ranked from strongest to lowest growth, are shown below, together with the words used to describe future employment growth in Job Outlook. 

  

Job Outlook provides data on employment characteristics, trends and prospects for 353 occupations.  For each occupation Job Outlook incorporates information from the United States O*Net website, including knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as links to vacancies on Australian JobSearch and education and training courses on the myfuture website.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

Skills provides data, sourced from the United States Occupational Information Network (O*Net), on skills, knowledge, abilities, interests, job environment, work values, activities and tasks for the best fit O*Net occupation.

Key Indicators

The graph shows 12 key indicators for this occupation - employment size, full-time share of employment, earnings, unemployment, historical employment growth (long-term, medium term and short-term), future employment growth (to 2014-15), mix of industries, job openings, vacancy level and overall job prospects.

The graph presents the decile ranking for the occupation for each indicator - around 10 per cent (40) of the 400 occupations are in each decile.  This makes it easier to compare occupational characteristics, trends and prospects across occupations.  For example, if an occupation has a decile ranking of 10 for future employment growth, then it is in the top 10 per cent of occupations for future employment growth (that is, in the group of occupations with the strongest future employment growth prospects).