Introduction

The Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) is a standardised framework for storing, organising and reporting occupation-related information. It has been established by the ABS through a comprehensive review of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) conducted between July 2022 and December 2024. OSCA replaces ANZSCO in Australia.

OSCA informs Australia’s important decisions involving statistical outputs and labour market analysis. The ABS uses OSCA to describe occupations in its statistical output from collections such as the Census of Population and Housing and Labour Force Survey, and administrative data such as the Linked Employer-Employee Dataset. OSCA can also be used to measure and understand the labour market. Examples include developing workforce strategies to support industry and establishing mechanisms to ensure the availability of skilled job holders via skilled migration and educational pathways.

ANZSCO has been jointly managed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Tatauranga Aotearoa, Statistics NZ (Stats NZ) since it was first published in 2006. In 2024, the ABS and Stats NZ ended their joint custodianship of ANZSCO.

The ABS and Stats NZ have introduced their own tailored statistical classifications for occupation. Each classification reflects the local contemporary labour market and meets stakeholder needs.

For further information about OSCA and related coding queries, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website contact us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.