Identifying declining and growing occupations and changing skills demand in Australia - support document 1

The following report presents the findings of the first of a three stage research project, investigating cross-occupational skills transfer-meaning occupational mobility that involves little or no additional training and depends heavily upon transferable skills from one occupational context to another (European Commission 2011). In this stage of the study the enablers and barriers to cross-occupational skills transfer between declining and growing occupations in Australia are explored, via a secondary analysis of ABS Census Data for years 2006 and 2011, and Labour Force Survey Data. The examination highlights the changes that have occurred to the skills demand profile in the Australian economy over the last decade in the prevailing context of economic transformation and industrial restructuring, by establishing which occupations are growing and which ones are declining. The skill level of each growing and declining occupation has also been considered, to aid in our understanding of how the composition of jobs and occupations located at different skill levels has changed over time. We utilise the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), which identifies the following skill levels: level 1 - professional, level 2 - highly skilled, level 3 - trade qualified, level 4 - semi-skilled, and level 5 - unskilled.