State of Australia’s Skills 2021: now and into the future

The NSC Report State of Australia’s Skills 2021: now and into the future finds the shape of Australia’s workforce is changing as our labour market responds to big forces like an ongoing shift to services and higher skilled jobs, advances in technology and growing automation. A December Labour Market update has also been developed to support the Report.

Some of the most important and rapidly growing skills needs over the coming years are:

• care – the group of skills responding to demographic change, such as the ageing of the population
• computing – a group of skills needed to respond to the digital world and the increasing use of digital technologies across the entire economy
• cognitive abilities – the group of advanced reasoning and higher order skills computers cannot easily replace, especially non-routine cognitive skills
• communication – the group of skills needed to collaborate and engage within and across workplaces.

Our Report also identifies data and digital skills as the fastest growing skills required by employers. Other examples of skills that are increasing in importance include enterprise resource planning (ERP), social media, infection control, patient care and graphic and visual design. These skills are changing the way we do our jobs.

While current COVID‑19 outbreaks presents uncertainty around the near‑term outlook for the labour market, the biggest long‑term impact of COVID-19 on jobs may be to accelerate structural changes already underway. This includes increasing online activity and the need for post-secondary qualifications.