The above section of the report identifies a common finding: occupational shortages have tended to be in Professionals and Technicians and Trades Workers occupation groups. In this final piece of the report, three brief case studies are provided relating to occupations within these major occupation groups.

^{Source: NSC, 2022 and 2021 Skills Priority List.}

Registered Nurses (ANZSCO 2544) are the largest employing occupation in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry. All Registered Nurse occupations, at the six-digit ANZSCO level, were in shortage on the 2022 SPL. A broad range of other Health Professional occupations, including General Practitioners and specialists were also in shortage.

The demand for Health Professionals has strengthened considerably in recent years. The number of advertised vacancies for these workers has increased significantly since early 2020, more than doubling to be at an historical peak in July 2022.¹⁹  Furthermore, Health Professional occupations are predicted to experience moderate to high demand over the next five years. These findings are consistent with population ageing in Australia, placing upward pressure on demand for Health Professionals going forward.

^{Source: NSC, 2022 Skills Priority List}

Moreover, 59% (84 of 143) of Skill Level 3 Technician and Trades Worker occupations were in shortage on the 2022 SPL, compared with just 20% (11 out of 56) of Skill Level 2 occupations.²⁰ Shortages also appear to be more persistent over time among the Skill Level 3 group of Technicians and Trades Worker occupations. Last year, over half (52%) were in shortage.²¹ In addition, 11 occupations that were in shortage in 2021 and 2022 were also found to be consecutively in shortage in the 5 years to 2019, based on analysis undertaken by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (and its predecessors).

^{Source: NSC, 2022 and 2021 Skills Priority List.}

However, analysis suggests that the number of graduates who are trained and qualified as Primary School and Secondary School teachers in the Australian labour market should be sufficient to meet demand.²³ This highlights the complexities of occupational skills shortages in Australia, and that a supply of trained professionals may not necessarily translate to an adequate supply to meet labour market needs.

The ‘true’ supply of workers for teaching occupations may be influenced by a range of other factors including but not limited to workplace conditions,²⁴ remuneration and perceptions of remuneration,²⁵ impacts on wellbeing and mental health,²⁶ skills wastage and attrition such as loss of qualified teachers to other occupations. Worth noting is that the median age for the teaching workforce was 40 years in 2021, which is similar to that of Professional occupations but is older compared with some other occupation groups such as Sales Worker, which has a median age of 29 years.²⁷ However, 16% of teachers are aged over 60 years and are likely to retire in the next five to ten years.²⁸

The Department of Education’s Next Steps: Report of the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review, 2021 highlighted that a recurring theme in many of the submissions to the review was the need for greater insight into the factors that influence teachers' decisions to leave the profession for both early career teachers and other teachers. If supply and demand is to be fully understood, greater insight into teacher attrition rates across the teaching lifecycle is needed.²⁹

Australia’s Education Ministers held a Teacher Roundtable on 12 August and agreed to develop a National Teacher Workforce Action Plan, that includes Better understanding future teacher workforce needs as one of its five priority areas for action.³⁰ Better data and evidence is also a focus of the Implementation and Evaluation Plan for the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy, released by the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) in September 2022.³¹ Following the National Jobs and Skills Summit, the Australian Government agreed to develop a comprehensive blueprint with key stakeholders to support and grow a quality VET teacher workforce.³²