OSCA 2024

The Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) 2024 is the latest standardised framework for storing, organising and reporting occupation-related information. OSCA 2024 replaced the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) 2022 in Australia. 

Over 300 new occupations were added to the classification, while almost 250 occupations were retired. 

The updated classification introduces several key features and benefits. These include:

• an improved hierarchical structure with better statistical balance, increased granularity and better skill specialisation alignment 
• main tasks added to all occupations providing a clearer and more detailed description of what each occupation involves
• improved visibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific occupations and specialisations
• removal of gendered language to promote gender inclusivity and help eliminate unconscious bias
• incorporation of user feedback to ensure the classification meets the needs of stakeholders. 

Summary of major changes highlights the main changes between OSCA 2024 and versions of ANZSCO, with a focus on reclassification and updates at the group level.

Data downloads are available to facilitate analysis and mapping of the OSCA classification with the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), Stats NZ's National Occupation List (NOL) and ANZSCO. 

The ABS provides two ways for coding occupation information to OSCA 2024: 

• the Whole of Australian Government Occupation Coding Service (the Coding Service)
• the OSCA Coder 

Find out more about Classifying and coding a job to an occupation and refer to the tiles below for the Coding Service and OSCA Coder.

Labour market analysts have indicated a strong need to adopt a balanced approach to the occupation classification revisions to ensure that occupation statistics are contemporary but also comparable over time.

The ABS will phase in the updated occupation classification across its major statistical collections, including: 

• Census: The ABS plans to release Census data via the suite of Census Products coded to successive versions of OSCA. This plan provides stakeholders with the data they need to make comparisons between points in time using current or previous versions of OSCA.
  • Census 2021: Data from the 2021 Census re-coded to OSCA 2024 will be released through Census Tablebuilder in September 2026. Census 2021 occupation data is already available coded to both ANZSCO v1.3 and ANZSCO 2021.
  • Census 2026: Occupation topic data will be included in the second release of Census data in October 2027, coded to OSCA 2024.
  • Census data will be re-coded to future versions of OSCA as soon as practicable, in order to facilitate timely data availability for each new classification version.
• Labour Force, Australia: The ABS will code Labour Force statistics using OSCA 2024 from September 2026 onwards. The Labour Force time series will also be backcast to August 2006 using OSCA, which will provide for twenty years of occupation statistics on a consistent basis. In the future, Labour Force occupation estimates will be backcast every 5 years if required to maintain time series continuity.
• Employee Earnings and Hours: Occupation data will be released for the May 2027 reference period, coded to OSCA 2024. This is expected to be published in January 2028. 

Implementation in other ABS collections will be done as soon as practicable, subject to relevance, feasibility and resource availability.