Qualifications and work

Latest release

Detailed information about the educational qualifications people have studied and their relevance to current jobs.

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Reference period
2022-23 financial year
Release date and time
19/04/2024 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

In 2022-23:

  • 12.7 million people aged 15-74 years had one or more non-school qualifications
  • 4.6 million people had multiple non-school qualifications
  • 48% of people with one or more non-school qualifications, had all qualifications below a bachelor degree level
  • 79% of employed people with a non-school qualification reported their highest qualification was relevant to their current job.

Changes between 2022-23 and 2018-19

When comparing data from different cycles of the survey, users should be aware of the following changes.

In 2022-23:

  • the age scope of the tables has changed from 15-64 years to 15-74 years
  • the scope of migrants in the tables has been expanded to include all persons not born in Australia. Previously, this was limited to migrants who arrived in Australia aged 15 years and older (referred to as adult migrants)
  • qualifications of migrants who completed a non-school qualification in the same year as their arrival in Australia have been treated as being completed before arrival in Australia.

See Methodology for more information.

2018-19 and 2022-23 comparison

2022-23, with comparable data from 2018-19.

Data files
Download xlsx [28.91 KB]

Non-school qualifications

In 2022-23, 12.7 million people aged 15-74 years had one or more non-school qualifications (67%).

Of these: 

  • 8.1 million had one qualification (64%)
  • 3.2 million had two qualifications (25%)
  • 1.4 million had three or more qualifications (11%).

There were 6.3 million people with no non-school qualifications (33%).

In 2022-23, the proportion of people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications increased to 67% from 62% in 2018-19, while the proportion of people with no qualifications decreased to 33% from 38% in 2018-19.

Of all people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications:

  • 6.2 million were men (49%) and 6.5 million were women (51%) 
  • 5.9 million were aged 25-44 years (46%).

Labour force status

In 2022-23, 78% of people with a non-school qualification were employed compared with 57% of those without a non-school qualification.

  1. People aged 15-74 years.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 2

Of people whose level of most recent non-school qualification was a:

  • postgraduate degree, 85% were employed
  • bachelor degree, 81% were employed
  • certificate III or certificate IV, 78% were employed.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 2

Combination of completed non-school qualification levels

In 2022-23, of people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications:

  • 48% had all qualifications below bachelor degree level, such as a certificate I–IV, diploma or advanced diploma
  • 38% had all qualifications at bachelor degree level or above, such as a graduate certificate, graduate diploma or other postgraduate degree
  • 11% had a combination of qualifications both at or above and below bachelor degree level.
  1. People aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.
  2. Out of up to five non-school qualifications completed.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 4

Men were more likely than women to have all of their qualifications below bachelor degree level (53% compared with 43%). 

Women were more likely than men to have all of their qualifications at bachelor degree level or above (41% compared with 36%). 

  1. People aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.
  2. Out of up to five non-school qualifications completed.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 4

Of people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications, 45% of those within age groups 25-34 years and 35-44 years had all of their qualifications at bachelor degree level or above.

Income

In 2022-23, men employed full-time, who had three or more non-school qualifications, earned an average weekly personal income of $2,558. This was $983 per week more than full-time employed men without a non-school qualification.

Women employed full-time who had three or more non-school qualifications, earned an average weekly personal income of $2,131. This was $857 per week more than full-time employed women without a non-school qualification.

  1. Full-time employed people aged 15-74 years.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 3

Relevance of highest non-school qualification to current job

A qualification was 'relevant' to an employed person's current job or business if they reported: 

  • working in the field of the qualification, or 
  • the qualification was highly relevant, relevant or somewhat relevant to current job or business.

In 2022-23, 7.9 million employed people aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification reported their highest qualification was relevant to their current job (79%).

Of employed people aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification:

  • 6.4 million were working in the field of their highest level qualification (64%)
  • 1.6 million were not working in the field of their highest level qualification but their qualification was relevant to their job (16%).

The proportion of employed people with a non-school qualification who reported their highest qualification was not relevant to their current job increased to 21% in 2022-23 from 17% in 2018-19.

People who completed their highest non-school qualification within the last five years were more likely to be working in the field of their highest qualification than those who completed their highest qualification more than five years ago (69% compared with 62%).

  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 6

Four in five employed men with a non-school qualification reported their highest qualification was relevant to their current job (80%). Similarly, 79% of employed women reported their highest qualification was relevant to their job.

People who were born in Australia were more likely to be working in the same field as their highest qualification (66%) compared with those born overseas (60%). 

People born overseas, who obtained their highest non-school qualification in an Australian institution were more likely to have reported their highest qualification as relevant to their current job (81%) than those who gained their highest qualification overseas (70%).

  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 6

Employed Australian or New Zealand citizens (residing in Australia) aged 15-74 years were more likely to have reported their highest qualification as relevant to their current job (81%) than people who were not Australian or New Zealand citizens (69%).

Employed people aged 15-74 years who spoke mainly English at home were more likely to have a highest qualification that was relevant to their current job than those who spoke a language other than English at home (81% compared with 71%).

Reasons why not working in a job where highest qualification was relevant

In 2022-23, of the 2.0 million employed people with a highest qualification not relevant to current job:

  • 42% were no longer interested in the field of their highest qualification or wanted a career change
  • 24% reported a lack of available positions in the field of their highest qualification
  • 17% reported that they were comfortable in their current job.

One in five employed women were not working in a field where their highest qualification was relevant due to personal reasons (20%), compared with 13% of men.

  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with highest non-school qualification not relevant to current job.
  2. Refers to all reasons why main field of highest non-school qualification was not relevant to current job; therefore, people may appear in more than one category.
  3. Other reasons include qualifications not recognised in Australia and skills not current.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 7

Most relevant qualification to current job

If a person had only one relevant qualification, then that was the 'most relevant'. Where a person had more than one relevant qualification, the most relevant was identified by the respondent from a list of their relevant qualifications.

In 2022-23, of the 9.9 million employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications, 8.3 million (83%) had a qualification they considered most relevant to their current job. 

  • 7.0 million were working in the same field as their qualification
  • 1.3 million were not working in the same field of qualification but considered their qualification relevant.

1.7 million people reported that none of their qualifications were relevant to their current job (17%).

Of employed people with one or more non-school qualifications:

  • 49% reported their most relevant qualification to current job was their only qualification
  • 22% reported having more than one qualification, and the most relevant was their highest qualification
  • 13% reported having more than one qualification and the most relevant was not their highest qualification.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 11

Of employed people aged 15-74 years, 2.1 million completed their most relevant non-school qualification in the last five years. Of these people where the qualification level:

  • was above a bachelor degree, 92% were working in the same field
  • was a bachelor degree, 85% were working in the same field
  • was below a bachelor degree, 88% were working in the same field.
  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with a qualification relevant to current job.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 9

People working full-time were more likely to have a most relevant qualification than those working part-time (86% compared with 76%).

Women with one or more non-school qualifications working part-time, were more likely to be working in the field of their most relevant qualification, 64% compared with 54% of men.

  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 10

Occupation and industry of most relevant qualification

In 2022-23, of employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications, the following workers had a qualification that was most relevant to their current job:

  • 97% of professionals
  • 89% of technicians and trades workers
  • 87% of managers
  • 83% of community and personal service workers.

Of technicians and trade workers with a non-school qualification, 63% had only one qualification and that qualification was relevant to their job.

Of employed machinery operators and drivers, 53% had a qualification that was not relevant to their current job, as did 51% of employed labourers. 

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 11

A high proportion of people working in the following industries reported working in the same field as their most relevant qualification:

  • education and training (84%)
  • health care and social assistance (82%)
  • professional, scientific, and technical services (81%).
  1. Employed people aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.
  2. Other includes Agriculture, forestry and fishing; Mining; Electricity, gas, water and waste services; Information, media and telecommunications; Financial and insurance services; Rental, hiring and real estate services; Arts and recreation services; and Other services.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 12

There were differences between level of most relevant non-school qualification to current job across industries:

  • 33% of workers in the education and training industry reported their most relevant qualification to their current job was above a bachelor degree level
  • 44% of workers in professional, scientific and technology services had a bachelor degree level as the most relevant to their current job
  • 69% of workers in the construction industry had a qualification below a bachelor degree level and that was the most relevant qualification to their current job.

Of workers in the transport, postal and warehousing industries, 41% had at least one qualification but none were relevant to their current job.

Incomplete non-school qualifications

An incomplete qualification refers to a non-school qualification that was started and partially undertaken but never completed.

In 2022-23, 2.9 million (15%) people aged 15-74 years had an incomplete non-school qualification.

Of these people, 46% reported their most recent incomplete non-school qualification occurred less than ten years ago.

The most common reasons for people aged 15-74 years not completing a qualification were:

  • personal, family, or health (27%) 
  • no longer interested in course (23%) 
  • employment (17%).

The most common reason for women to have an incomplete qualification was personal, family, or health reasons (34%). For men, the most common reason was a lack of interest (26%).

  1. People aged 15-74 years with an incomplete non-school qualification.

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 14

Qualifications of migrants

In 2022-23, there were 6.3 million people aged 15-74 years who were born overseas. Of these migrants, 4.6 million (73%) had a non-school qualification.

Of migrants aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification:

  • 29% had a highest qualification above bachelor degree level
  • 36% had a highest qualification at bachelor degree level
  • 34% had a highest qualification below bachelor degree level. 

Labour force status of migrants

In 2022-23, of migrants aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification, 78% (3.6 million) were employed, compared with 52% (0.9 million) of migrants without a qualification.

Of employed migrants aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification, 53% were men and 47% were women. 

Migrants with a highest qualification at bachelor degree level or above were more likely to be employed full-time compared with those migrants with a highest qualification below bachelor degree level. The following proportions of migrants with a non-school qualification were employed full-time:

  • 68% of those with a highest qualification above bachelor degree level 
  • 61% of those with a highest qualification at bachelor degree level 
  • 50% of those with a highest qualification below bachelor degree level.

Qualifications by level, and time since arrival of migrants

A migrant may have completed a qualification before arrival, after arrival or a combination of both.

In 2022-23, of migrants aged 15-74 years:

  • 2.2 million (36%) had a non-school qualification before their arrival to Australia 
  • 3.0 million (47%) completed a non-school qualification after their arrival.

Of the migrants who had completed a non-school qualification prior to migrating to Australia, 52% were men and 48% were women. In comparison, of the migrants who completed a qualification after arrival, there were more women (53%) than men (48%).

Of migrants who completed a non-school qualification before arrival, 50% had a bachelor degree. Of migrants who completed a non-school qualification after arrival, 44% had a qualification below bachelor degree level.

  1. Migrants aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications completed before arrival and completed after arrival. 
  2. People may appear in multiple categories (i.e. have completed a qualification before and after arrival).

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 15

Of migrants aged 15-74 years who arrived less than five years ago, 34% had a bachelor degree, compared with 13% of migrants who arrived more than 10 years ago.

  1. Migrants aged 15-74 years. 

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 16

Relevance of qualifications to current job of migrants

In 2022-23, of employed migrants aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification:

  • 43% were currently working in the field of their highest qualification completed after arrival
  • 25% were currently working in the field of their highest qualification completed before arrival.
  1. Employed migrants aged 15-74 years with one or more non-school qualifications.
  2. People may appear in multiple categories (i.e. have completed a qualification before and after arrival).

Source: Qualifications and work 2022-23, Table 17

Data downloads

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Qualifications and work

Data files

Survey material

Qualifications and work 2022-23 questionnaire

Data files
Download xlsx [219.43 KB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 4235.0

Methodology

Scope

People aged 15 to 74 years who were usual residents of private dwellings.
Excludes:

  • Australian permanent defence force members and their dependants
  • non-Australian defence forces
  • residents of the Indigenous Community Strata.

Geography

Data available for:

  • Australia
  • Major cities
  • Inner regional
  • Outer regional
  • Remote/very remote.

Source

Multipurpose Household Survey

Collection method

Interviews were conducted by telephone with responses directly recorded in an electronic questionnaire.
Proxy interviews were permissible under certain circumstances.

Concepts, sources and methods

Education data are coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001.

History of changes

See Comparing the data.

View full methodology

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