Census

Every stat tells a story.

12 insights about work and study from the 2021 Census

Media Release
Released
12/10/2022

The 2021 Census data released today provides a fascinating snapshot of employment and education in Australia. Trends and emerging fields of work and study can be seen in the Census data.

Here’s a quick snapshot of 12 insights revealed by 2021 Census data:

  1. Four big industries make up 40 per cent of the workforce. Health Care, Retail, Construction and Education employ the most people in Australia, accounting for over 40 per cent of the workforce.
  2. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing have the oldest workforce. Almost 30 per cent of people working in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing are aged 60 years and over, compared to 11 per cent across all industries.
  3. Young people are serving it up. Fast Food Cooks had a median age of 18 years old, followed by Café Workers at 21 years. The observation that young people work in hospitality is confirmed in the Census data: the Accommodation and Food industry has the youngest workforce, with 45 per cent aged under 25 years.
  4. No changes in top occupations. Sales Assistants, Registered Nurses and General Clerks were the top three occupations in Australia, as they were in 2011 and 2016.
  5. Female teachers are head of the class. The majority of Early Childhood Teachers (98 per cent), Primary School Teachers (85 per cent) and Secondary School Teachers (62 per cent) are female.
  6. Construction slowly builds diversity. Female representation is increasing gradually in the Construction industry, with females accounting for 10 per cent of the 109,000 Construction Managers in 2021 (up from 7 per cent in 2016). The number of females with qualifications in Building Construction Management has doubled since 2016, to almost 2,000. However, only 1 per cent of Plumbers, Concreters, Roof Tilers, Bricklayers and Carpenters are female.
  7. New technology, new jobs. Software and Application Programmer now appears in the top 20 occupations in Australia, and Security Science is the fastest growing field of study. Advances in technology are also reflected in declining occupations. There are 41,000 Keyboard Operators in 2021, compared to 170,000 Stenographers and Typists 50 years ago.
  8. More than half of Australians now have a qualification. Over 11 million people in Australia have a vocational or tertiary qualification, more than half of the population aged 15 years and over and a 20 per cent increase since 2016. We are also up-skilling further, with 1.1 million people studying after having already obtained a non-school qualification.
  9. Migration translating to work and study increases. Qualifications in Southern Asian Languages more than doubled since 2016 becoming the third fastest growing field of study. The growth in this area of study is in line with Punjabi emerging as one of the top five languages used at home and the continued growth in Indian and Nepalese communities throughout Australia. In 2021, there were 5,600 Translators and Interpreters in Australia.
  10. Overseas born Australians are more qualified. People born overseas were more likely to have a non-school qualification (63 per cent) than those born in Australia (56 per cent). 4 in 5 Australians who were born in India (82 per cent) and Bangladesh (82 per cent) held a non-school qualification.
  11. Students get down to business. The most common fields of study in Australia are Business, Teaching, Nursing and Building. In 2016, Business was also the most common field of study.
  12. What do volunteers do when they’re not volunteering? In the 2021 Census, the professions most likely to volunteer were Ministers of Religion, Legislators, and Mixed Crop and Livestock Farmers, also the top three in 2016.

 

We love our data at the ABS! Here are four more quirky findings about work that didn’t make our top 12 but we didn’t want to leave out -

  • New industries, be...Gin (and other spirits) - Employment in the Spirit Manufacturing industry increased by 240 per cent and in Beer Manufacturing by 50 per cent.
  • New business of home tours? - 17 per cent of Tour Guides worked from home in the week before the 2021 Census.
  • Want to hire a DVD on Friday night? - There are 160 people employed in Video and Other Media Rental Hiring Services in Australia.
  • Making the count - There are 3,500 Statisticians in Australia and 400 work in Belconnen ACT… the humble Canberra home of the ABS. 

 

Table 1: Count of employed persons in 2021

 

Person count 2021

Percentage of 15+ population

Employed, full-time

7,095,103

34.1%

Employed, part-time

3,962,550

19.1%

Employed, away from work

991,758

4.8%

Employed Total 

12,049,410

58.0%

Unemployed

646,442

3.1%

Not in the labour force

6,888,081

33.1%

Not Stated

1,200,851

5.8%

Total population (15+)

20,784,787

100%

Table 2: Industry of employment in 2021

Industry

Employees

Proportion

Health Care and Social Assistance

1,751,717

14.5

Retail Trade

1,099,617

9.1

Construction

1,067,645

8.9

Education and Training

1,061,320

8.8

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services

945,094

7.8

Public Administration and Safety

797,031

6.6

Accommodation and Food Services

783,737

6.5

Manufacturing

714,759

5.9

Transport, Postal and Warehousing

546,364

4.5

Financial and Insurance Services

445,121

3.7

Other Services

435,459

3.6

Administrative and Support Services

388,432

3.2

Inadequately described

369,939

3.1

Wholesale Trade

311,863

2.6

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing

282,227

2.3

Mining

214,759

1.8

Arts and Recreation Services

188,479

1.6

Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services

187,621

1.6

Information Media and Telecommunications

166,872

1.4

Not stated

156,996

1.3

Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services

134,368

1.1

Total

12,049,410

100.0

 

Table 3: Top 20 Occupations in 2021

 

Occupation

Male

Female

Person count

1

Sales Assistants (General)

174,270

339,817

514,084

2

Registered Nurses

30,614

232,130

262,742

3

General Clerks

33,243

211,604

244,849

4

Aged and Disabled Carers

53,078

174,454

227,535

5

Retail Managers

95,063

99,680

194,743

6

Primary School Teachers

24,530

140,355

164,891

7

Child Carers

7,101

155,386

162,490

8

Truck Drivers

154,554

7,006

161,562

9

Receptionists

10,451

150,143

160,598

10

Accountants

73,623

84,744

158,366

11

Secondary School Teachers

58,850

96,994

155,842

12

Commercial Cleaners

58,165

82,625

140,795

13

Storepersons

99,087

35,573

134,656

14

Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Managers

73,894

60,644

134,533

15

Electricians

129,102

2,811

131,907

16

Contract, Program and Project Administrators

53,596

71,564

125,162

17

Software and Applications Programmers

94,374

22,555

116,927

18

Kitchenhands

51,830

63,725

115,550

19

Carpenters and Joiners

112,142

1,221

113,362

20

Office Managers

11,834

99,990

111,828

Note: Small random adjustments have been made to all cell values to protect the confidentiality of data. These adjustments may cause the sum of rows or columns to differ by small amounts from table totals. 

 

Table 4: Most male dominated occupations in 2021

 

Occupation

Male (%)

Female (%)

1

Bricklayers and Stonemasons

99.1

0.9

2

Plumbers

99.0

1.0

3

Sheetmetal Trades Workers

99.0

1.0

4

Carpenters and Joiners

98.9

1.1

5

Roof Tilers

98.9

1.1

6

Concreters

98.9

1.1

Table 5: Most female dominated occupations in 2021

 

Occupation

Female (%)

Male (%)

1

Midwives

98.7

1.3

2

Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers

97.6

2.4

3

Dental Assistants

97.5

2.5

4

Personal Assistants

97.1

2.9

5

Beauty Therapists

97.0

3.1

Table 6: Occupations with highest median age in 2021

 

Occupation

Median age 2021

Median age 2016

1

Livestock Farmers

58

57

2

Bus and Coach Drivers

57

55

3

Caretakers

57

56

4

Mixed Crop and Livestock Farmers

56

55

5

Caravan Park and Camping Ground Managers

54

54

 

Table 7: Occupations with the youngest median age in 2021

 

Occupation

Median age 2021

Median age 2016

1

Fast Food Cooks

18

18

2

Cafe Workers

21

24

3

Checkout Operators and Office Cashiers

22

21

4

Sports Coaches, Instructors and Officials

22

23

5

Waiters

22

22

Table 8: Top 10 fields of study for non-school qualifications in 2021

 

Field of study

Male

Female

Total

1

Business and Management

474,510

669,578

1,144,084

2

Teacher Education

191,718

644,694

836,410

3

Nursing

56,517

551,761

608,276

4

Building

566,332

13,274

579,605

5

Human Welfare Studies and Services

71,350

481,641

552,990

6

Accounting

232,933

297,379

530,313

7

Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Technology

401,202

24,832

426,035

8

Food and Hospitality

215,219

172,607

387,827

9

Engineering and Related Technologies, nfd[1]

338,761

39,479

378,240

10

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Technology

336,820

11,836

348,652

[1] nfd – means not further defined and indicates that the Census response did not have enough detail to classify the person into a finer detailed qualification.

Note: Small random adjustments have been made to all cell values to protect the confidentiality of data. These adjustments may cause the sum of rows or columns to differ by small amounts from table totals. 

 

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Media notes

  • When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
  • For media requests and interviews, contact the ABS Media Team via media@abs.gov.au (8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri).
  • Search for 2021 Census data through the QuickStats tool.
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