2022 Skills Priority List Key Findings Report
Overview
This story was first published on Wednesday 21 September 2022.
If you wish to use this content, please contact media@skillscommission.gov.au to confirm that the information is still current.
1.1 Introduction
The SPL is released annually as a point-in-time assessment of the labour market. The list and occupation assessments are determined through extensive statistical analysis of the labour market, employer surveys, and broad stakeholder engagement with peak bodies, industry groups, professional associations, unions, regional representative bodies and major employers in the Australian labour market, combined with consultations with federal, state and territory governments.
The use of various sources of evidence and stakeholder consultations ensures the SPL represents a comprehensive assessment of occupational shortages. The NSC thanks all participants for their input and their expertise in developing the SPL. In particular, we thank state and territory agencies for their insights into the occupational shortages that are specific to their jurisdictions, including points of difference in their labour market when compared to the national picture.
This Key Findings Report provides readers with a high-level overview of results from the 2022 SPL, focussing on the themes that emerged during its production. A common pattern uncovered was that occupation shortages were most acute in Professional occupations, requiring higher level qualifications and experience, and Skill Level 3 occupations among Technicians and Trades Workers.
The past year has shown a significant tightening in the Australian labour market, and the findings of the 2022 SPL reflect this, with a large proportion of diverse occupations in shortage. The ongoing effects of COVID-19, along with the changing economic landscape have influenced a range of challenges in many occupations, including Health Professionals and Teachers, while ongoing issues in the labour market remain, such as persistent shortages of Technicians and Trades Workers.
For further detail on how the 2022 Skills Priority List was produced, please refer to the Skills Priority List Methodology (v 1.2).
1.2 A tight labour market has implications for skill shortages
This section of the paper outlines what the strength of the labour market means for skills shortages.1 An important conclusion is that a tightening labour market will generally indicate that employers will increasingly compete for workers, resulting in a greater number of occupations in shortage as employers are unable to fill advertised vacancies.
ABS datashows that the labour market has tightened significantly since 2021.2 The tightening can be gauged from the unemployment rate, which fell to 3.4% in July 2022 – the lowest rate recorded since August 1974. Further, the employment-to-population ratio stands at 64.2%, slightly down from a record high the previous month. These developments suggest the supply of workers available to employers is constrained.
At the same time, the demand for workers has increased rapidly over the past two years to 2022. The number of jobs advertised in Australia reached 309,900 in August 2022, a 42% increase from the same time last year. This figure is among the highest levels on record since the inception of the Internet Vacancy Index (IVI) series in January 2006.3 This growth in labour demand has contributed to a reduction in the number of unemployed persons per job vacancy, a trend which can be seen since June 2020 (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Unemployed persons per job vacancy, July 2006 to July 2022
Source: NSC, Internet Vacancy Index, July 2022; ABS, Labour Force, Australia, July 2022, ABS, Job Vacancies, Australia, May 2022, all seasonally adjusted data.
Moreover, Figure 2 shows that the surge in online job advertisements seen in 2022 – also apparent in 2021 – is reflected in increases in the recruitment difficulty rate during those periods.
Figure 2: Recruitment difficulty (3-month moving average) and IVI job ads (seasonally adjusted), September 2020 to July 2022
Source: NSC, Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, August 2022; Internet Vacancy Index, August 2022, seasonally adjusted data.
Additional evidence of recruitment difficulty can be found in the Survey of Employers who Recently Advertised (SERA), which shows that employers have received fewer suitable applicants per vacancy in 2021-22 compared with 2020-21, and more vacancies remained unfilled. Specifically, the vacancy fill rate declined for 51 out of 63 six-digit ANZSCO occupations surveyed in both 2020-21 and 2021-22.4 On average, across these occupations, the fill rate declined by 13 percentage points from 61% to 48%.
Consistent with the aforementioned developments, the 2022 SPL shows that, overall, more occupations were in national shortage compared to 2021 (Figure 3 and Table 1).
At a macro level, in the 2022 SPL, 286 out of 914 (or 31%) of occupations assessed were in shortage compared with 153 out of 799 (or 19%) of assessed occupations in 2021. This reflects occupations that were rated nationally as either ‘S’ (for shortage in both metropolitan and regional areas nationally) or ‘R’ (for shortage in regional areas nationally). The remaining 628 occupations were rated nationally as ‘NS’ (no shortage), noting that some of these occupations were assessed as being in shortage in some states and territories.
Figure 3: Proportion of occupations in shortage on the 2021 and 2022 SPL, by Major Occupation Group
Source: NSC, 2022 Skills Priority List.
Table 1: Count and proportion of occupations in shortage on the 2021 and 2022 SPL, by Major Occupation Group
|
|
2021 SPL |
2022 SPL |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Major Occupation Group |
Occupations assessed |
Occupations in Shortage (No.) |
Occupations in Shortage (%) |
Occupations assessed |
Occupations in Shortage (No.) |
Occupations in Shortage (%) |
|
Managers |
83 |
10 |
12% |
94 |
10 |
11% |
|
Professionals |
283 |
54 |
19% |
324 |
127 |
39% |
|
Technicians and Trades Workers |
167 |
70 |
42% |
203 |
95 |
47% |
|
Community and Personal Service Workers |
86 |
7 |
8% |
91 |
18 |
20% |
|
Clerical and Administrative Workers |
62 |
|
0% |
65 |
3 |
5% |
|
Sales Workers |
20 |
|
0% |
21 |
1 |
5% |
|
Machinery Operators and Drivers |
70 |
12 |
17% |
77 |
22 |
29% |
|
Labourers |
28 |
|
0% |
39 |
10 |
26% |
|
All occupations |
799 |
153 |
19% |
914 |
286 |
31% |
Source: NSC, 2022 Skills Priority List.
Comparisons of the findings of the 2021 and 2022 SPL fell into three broad categories: occupations that were newly in shortage in 2022, those that were in shortage in both years and those that were no longer in shortage compared to 2021.
The tight labour market is reflected in the year-on-year changes in the SPL, with 129 occupations being assessed as in shortage in 2022 that were not in shortage in 2021.5 Additionally, there were 127 occupations that were in shortage in both years.6 Finally, there were only 17 occupations that were no longer in shortage in 2022 after being in shortage in 2021.7 Of the 286 occupations in shortage in 2022, 30 occupations were not assessed in 2021, due to a change in the ANZSCO classification.8
The occupations which were in shortage in both years were concentrated in Professional occupations and Technicians and Trades Worker occupations.
Labour market statistics that reflect employment in each ANZSCO six-digit occupation are only provided once every five years, via the ABS Census. Table 2 below presents the top 20 largest employing six-digit occupations on the SPL, based on 2016 Census data.9 From this list, 11 are in shortage, nationally.10 These 11 occupations also cover around 1.3 million workers and represented about 12% of total employment (of around 10.7 million) in 2016. However, all occupations in shortage on the SPL in 2022 comprised 3.5 million workers and 32% of total employment based on 2016 Census data.11
Table 2: Top 20 largest employing occupations on the SPL, by 2022 SPL ratings
|
2021 ANZSCO Code |
Occupation title |
Labour Market Rating |
Future Demand |
Employment size (in the 2016 ABS Census) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
531111 |
General Clerk |
NS |
Moderate |
219,800 |
|
142111 |
Retail Manager (General) |
S |
Moderate |
170,300 |
|
241213 |
Primary School Teacher |
S |
Moderate |
148,500 |
|
241411 |
Secondary School Teacher |
S |
Moderate |
137,300 |
|
733111 |
Truck Driver (General) |
S |
Moderate |
137,200 |
|
423111 |
Aged or Disabled Carer |
S |
Strong |
132,300 |
|
221111 |
Accountant (General) |
NS |
Moderate |
130,100 |
|
512111 |
Office Manager |
NS |
Moderate |
115,600 |
|
341111 |
Electrician (General) |
S |
Strong |
111,900 |
|
741111 |
Storeperson |
NS |
Strong |
108,200 |
|
431511 |
Waiter |
NS |
Strong |
106,400 |
|
131112 |
Sales and Marketing Manager |
NS |
Moderate |
100,600 |
|
421111 |
Child Care Worker |
S |
Strong |
96,300 |
|
542111 |
Receptionist (General) |
NS |
Moderate |
93,700 |
|
551111 |
Accounts Clerk |
NS |
Moderate |
93,300 |
|
331212 |
Carpenter |
S |
Soft |
92,500 |
|
511112 |
Program or Project Administrator |
S |
Strong |
88,500 |
|
351311 |
Chef |
S |
Moderate |
80,700 |
|
551211 |
Bookkeeper |
NS |
Soft |
79,200 |
|
321211 |
Motor Mechanic (General) |
S |
Moderate |
73,500 |
Source: NSC, 2022 Skills Priority List; ABS, 2016 Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 4: Proportion of occupations in shortage on the 2021 and 2022 SPL, by Skill Level12
Source: NSC, 2022 Skills Priority List.
On the other hand, the largest increase in the share of occupations in shortage was for Skill Level 1 occupations, which are occupations generally needing a bachelor degree or higher and are predominantly Professional occupations. The share of these Skill Level 1 occupations in shortage rose from 19% in 2021 to 35% in 2022.
Footnotes
An occupation is considered to be in shortage when employers are unable to fill or have considerable difficulty filling vacancies for an occupation or cannot meet significant specialised skill needs within that occupation, at current levels of remuneration and conditions of employment, and in reasonably accessible locations. Based on this definition, the primary measure of an occupational shortage is the ability of employers to fill vacancies (known as the vacancy fill rate).
ABS, Labour Force, Australia, July 2022, seasonally adjusted data.
NSC, Internet Vacancy Index, Preliminary, August 2022, seasonally adjusted data
Only includes those occupations with sufficient sample sizes across both periods.
The full list is in Appendix A.
The full list is in Appendix B.
The full list is in Appendix C.
Different sets of occupations were assessed for the 2022 SPL compared with the 2021 SPL. This is a result of changes to the ABS ANZSCO classification structure and changes to the NSC SPL Methodology where not elsewhere classified (nec) occupations were included in the SPL this year. A comparative sample was created to enable direct comparisons between 2021 and 2022. The sample composed of 780 occupations.
The ABS Labour Force Survey does not provide estimates of employment at the 6-digit level. Labour force related variables from the 2021 Census will not be released by the ABS until October 2022.
Occupations in shortage also includes occupations in regional shortage.
This calculation is based on the 2013 ABS ANZSCO structure.
Skill Level 5 occupations are excluded from the SPL. Skill Level 1 occupations are commensurate with a bachelor degree or higher educational attainment level. Skill Level 2 occupations are commensurate with an advanced diploma or diploma educational attainment level. Skill Level 3 occupations are commensurate with a certificate IV or III educational attainment level. Skill Level 4 occupations are commensurate with a certificate II or III educational attainment level. Skill Level 5 occupations are commensurate with a certificate I or secondary education attainment level.