Occupations are categorised by ANZSCO using a combination of skill level and skill specialisation as criteria. This framework organises occupations into progressively larger groups across five hierarchical levels, with occupations being the smallest level (of which there are 1023), followed by unit group, minor group, sub-major group and major group (of which there are eight) ²⁰. 

As with skill level groups, employment increased across all major occupational groups over the 20 years to February 2020. However, as Figure 19 and Table 5 show, this growth was not evenly distributed, with professionals (up by 1,553,500 or 95.0%) and community and personal service workers (up by 724,100 or 105.3%) accounting for more than half (54.1%) of total employment growth over the period. Consequently, the share of total employment accounted for by professionals and community and personal service workers increased by 5.9 and 3.0 percentage points respectively.

Employment within the professionals and community personal service workers major occupational groups were on average less susceptible to automation compared with the average across all occupations. As at February 2000, the average automatability score for occupations within the professionals occupation group was 2.34, while the average automatability score was 2.44 for community and personal service workers. By comparison, the average automatability score across all occupations was 2.85 as at February 2000. For more on this topic see ‘Trends in automatability’ later in the chapter.

Table 5: 20-year change in employment by major occupational groups

Sources: ABS, Labour force Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC

Table 6 shows that at the detailed (ANZSCO 4-digit) occupation level, occupations such as registered nurses, accountants, software applications programmers, advertising and marketing professionals and management and organisation analysts were among the occupations driving the growth in the professionals major occupational group over the 20 years to February 2020.

Table 6: Professionals, largest growth detailed occupations, February 2000 to February 2020

Sources: ABS, Labour force Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC

Table 7 shows that the drivers of growth in the community and personal service workers major occupational group include:

• aged and disabled carers
• child carers
• nursing support and personal care workers
• education aides and waiters.

Table 7: Community and personal service workers, largest growth detailed occupations, February 2000 to February 2020

Sources: ABS, Labour force Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC.

The weakest employment growth over the 20 years to February 2020 was observed for the labourers and clerical and administrative workers major occupational groups. The share of total employment accounted for by these groups declined by 2.6 and 3.0 percentage points respectively over the period.

Occupations within the labourers and clerical and administrative workers major occupational groups were on average more susceptible to automation compared with the average across all occupations. As at February 2000, the average automatability scores for occupations within the labourers occupational group was 3.06, while the average occupation score for clerical and administrative workers was 3.29. By comparison, the average automatability score across all occupations was 2.85 as at February 2000. For more on this topic see ‘Trends in automatability’ later in the chapter.

Table 8 shows that within the labourers broad occupational group, 21 of the 44 detailed occupations recorded falls in employment over the period. The largest declines were recorded for crop farm workers, product assemblers and laundry workers.

Within the clerical and administrative workers broad occupational group, 11 of the 33 detailed occupations recorded falls in employment over the period. The largest declines were recorded for secretaries, keyboard operators and personal assistants (see table 9).

Table 8: Labourers, largest declining detailed occupations, February 2000 to February 2020

Sources: ABS, Labour force, Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC

Table 9: Clerical and administrative workers, largest declining detailed occupations, February 2000 to February 2020

Sources: ABS, Labour force, Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC

The previous section examined trends in specific broad occupational groupings. In this section we examine trends across 358 detailed occupations. Overall, employment increased in 265 of the 358 detailed occupations over the 20 years to February 2020. Increases were observed across all broad occupational groups and skill levels. Table 10 shows that the largest growth was recorded for general clerks, followed by:

• aged and disabled carers
• registered nurses
• advertising, public relations and sales managers
• sales assistants (general).

Employment fell in 91 of the remaining detailed occupations over the 20 years to February 2020 and two detailed occupations remained steady. Falls were observed across all broad occupational groups and skill levels over the period, with the largest falls recorded for secretaries, followed by:

• keyboard operators
• mixed crop and livestock farmers
• crop farm workers
• engineering production workers.

Table 10: Largest increasing and declining detailed occupations, February 2000 to February 2020

Sources: ABS, Labour force, Australia, detailed, seasonally adjusted by NSC

STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and maths) are an integral part of Australia’s labour market and enable a range of complex, innovative types of work in many different industries. Digitisation and automation are shaping the composition of the labour market, and the need for workers in higher skill occupations will be greater in coming years. STEM skills are one part of this shift and are at the centre of the knowledge economy. The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources reported in Australia’s National Science Statement that businesses that innovate are twice as likely to use STEM skills, and 70% of Australian employers identify STEM-skilled employees as the most innovative ²¹. People with STEM skills develop deep discipline knowledge in their respective fields, digital literacy, and the flexibility to pivot their careers to embrace new challenges – important for navigating the changing labour market and changing skills requirements for occupations ²².

The National Skills Commission has identified 108 ‘STEM occupations’ based on the ABS occupation classification, ANZSCO, at the four-digit level of detail. Latest available ABS Labour force survey data, for the February 2021 quarter, show that STEM occupations make up 21.9% of total employment, and over the 20 year period to February 2020, before the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market, employment in STEM occupations grew by 85.0%. This is more than twice as fast as non-STEM occupations (40.2% over the period).

Temporary shock vs structural change: the mining boom and slowdown

For much of the 2000s, the Australian economy benefitted from increased global demand for resources, in particular strong demand for iron ore from China. This created a boom in mining employment, which rose by 190,100 (228.5%) over the 10 years to August 2012. By comparison, employment across all industries increased by 23.4% over the period.

Figure 20 shows that employment in the mining industry peaked in August 2012 during the mining boom. After the boom there was a slowdown in demand for resources and subsequently employment fell. Employment in the mining industry fell by 55,500 (20.3%) over the five years to August 2017. Although this fall in employment is often characterised as marking the end of the mining boom, employment in the industry has remained strong and at February 2020, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, was at 86.8% of peak mining employment levels.

Retrospective analysis of the mining industry illustrates the difficulty in separating a temporary market shock from persistent structural change. Although mining employment fell over the five years to August 2017, since around 2016 the value of Australia’s metalliferous ores and metal scrap exports have continued to rise, while
the underlying factors which helped drive demand for resources, such as government infrastructure spending and demand for resource intensive technological goods, remain intact and continue to provide a tailwind for employment in the mining industry.

As a result, during the 2012 to 2017 period of softened resource demand it may have appeared that the level of employment in the mining industry was reverting to pre-mining boom levels. However, labour market data released from 2018 onwards have shown that the decline in mining employment over the five years to August
2017 was far smaller than the substantial increase in employment that occurred over the 10 years to August 2012. As at February 2020, the level of mining employment was 186.4% above the level recorded in February 2000. Moreover, the share of total employment in the mining industry nearly doubled from 1.0% to 1.9% over the 20
years to February 2020. It appears that mining employment will continue to remain at elevated levels as long as there is sufficient resource demand