Yahoo Finance These are the top 20 jobs in Australia
The 20 most common jobs in Australia have been revealed, with four industries dominating the workforce.
Information from the 2021 census, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today, found that health care, retail, construction and education employed the most people across Australia.
The four industries accounted for more than 40 per cent of Australia’s total workforce, with 15 per cent of Aussies employed in the healthcare and social assistance industry, which includes jobs like disability and aged care workers.
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“There are now over 1.7 million people working in health care and social assistance in Australia, of which 30 per cent are working in hospitals,” statistician Dr David Gruen, AO, said.
The census counted more than 260,000 registered nurses, with the occupation growing by 19 per cent since the previous census, in 2016.
There was also a spike in aged and disabled carers, with more than 220,000 people in the occupation in 2021, up 72 per cent from 2016.
Many people in these jobs were born overseas, Gruen noted.
“Census data shows over 40 per cent of registered nurses and aged and disabled carers were born overseas, with almost 40,000 arriving since 2016,” he said.
“A 40 per cent share born overseas is significantly higher than the average across all occupations - of 32 per cent born overseas.”
Sales assistants, registered nurses and general clerks were the top three occupations in Australia for the third census in a row.
Top jobs
These were the top occupations in 2021, along with the number of people in each job:
Sales assistants (general) - 514,084
Registered nurses - 262,742
General clerks - 244,849
Aged and disabled carers - 227,535
Retail managers - 194,743
Primary school teachers - 164,891
Child carers - 162,490
Truck drivers - 161,562
Receptionists - 160,598
Accountants - 158,366
Secondary school teachers - 155,842
Commercial cleaners - 140,795
Storepersons - 134,656
Advertising, public relations and sales managers - 134,533
Electricians - 131,907
Contract, program and project administrators - 125,162
Software and applications programmers - 116,927
Kitchen hands - 115,550
Carpenters and joiners - 113,362
Office managers - 111,828
Australia is currently facing a skills shortage, with the number of occupations struggling to fill positions doubling over the past year.
According to the latest SEEK Employment Report, job ads were 15.5 per cent higher year on year, despite declining 5.5 per cent month on month.
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