Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation (NERO)

Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation (NERO)

October 2022 data was released on 2 November 2022

The Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation, or NERO, is a new experimental dataset, developed by the National Skills Commission (NSC).

It provides timely information on employment in 355 occupations across 88 regions in Australia. Until now, this type of data was only readily available every five years as part of the ABS Census of Population and Housing. With NERO, the insights can be produced monthly.

NERO can be searched either by occupation or by region and you can download the data in a variety of ways. 

NERO has been developed using an emerging methodology called ‘nowcasting' that uses both traditional and real-time data, as well as big data techniques, such as machine learning, to estimate trends that are more timely, more detailed and are available more frequently.

Releases

Data will be updated monthly with planned release dates as follows:

Data period  Expected release date
November 2022 7 December 2022
December 2022 11 January 2023

The NERO series provides estimates of occupational employment by region that was previously only readily available every five years from the ABS Census of Population and Housing. As an experimental series, the NERO estimates have been smoothed to provide an indication of long term trends in local labour markets. As a result of this smoothing process, these estimates may not capture short term dynamics in the labour market, such as the considerable impacts of lockdowns recently experienced by many regions across Australia. The NSC is exploring other approaches to better reflect short-term dynamics in its NERO experimental estimates. The NSC encourages users to utilise a combination of data sources alongside NERO (such as the NSC Internet Vacancy IndexNSC Recruitment Experiences and Outlook SurveyABS Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages and ABS Labour Force Survey) to analyse current labour market trends. The NSC continues to welcome feedback on NERO.

Feedback

NERO estimates are experimental in nature, and it is anticipated that the estimates may be revised in 2022. Users will be advised once any revisions to the methodology are completed. Feedback is welcomed, including suggestions for how the estimates could be improved.

If you give feedback about NERO, you give without charge, the right to use, share and commercialise your feedback, in any way and for any purpose (and including the right to allow others to do this). You agree not to give feedback that requires us to license NERO, or any other product or document, to third parties because we include your feedback in them. These rights are perpetual. A copy of the Privacy Policy can be obtained by emailing Privacy@skillscommission.gov.au.

Licence

NERO is a product of the National Skills Commission, within the Commonwealth of Australia. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the NSC’s logo, any images or photographs, any material protected by a trade mark and where otherwise noted, the content of NERO is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, CC BY 4.0 licence. Please note that this CC BY licence includes a disclaimer of warranties and liabilities in favour of the Commonwealth of Australia.

The NSC used data records provided by the parties listed on the Nowcasting Methodology page in the preparation of NERO.

Use of, including to copy, redistribute, remix, transform, or build upon, all or any part of NERO must include the following attribution: Nowcast of Employment by Region and Occupation, National Skills Commission, Commonwealth of Australia. Used under Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence.