Sunday Territorian

New data lifts jobs outlook

- DARYL PASSMORE

AUSTRALIA will need an army of new nurses, health and aged care workers – as well as thousands of waiters and massage therapists – over the next five years.

While all the talk has been of robots making roles redundant, official jobs growth projection­s reveal a massive demand for human skills.

But secretarie­s, farmers and bank workers might want to consider a career switch.

Data from the federal Department of Jobs and Small Business shows total employment numbers in Australia will rise by 886,100 to May 2023.

Two-thirds of those jobs will be in just four sectors: healthcare and social assistance, constructi­on, education and training and profession­al, scientific and tech services.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said: “When we think about jobs of the future, we tend to think about drone pilots but its nurses, teachers and the like.”

The healthcare and social assistance sector is predicted to swell by 250,300 jobs. The 14.9 per cent growth rate is more than double overall job growth of 7 per cent.

They will include 69,000 aged and disability carers and 51,000 registered nurses.

The constructi­on industry will grow 10 per cent – 118,800 extra jobs.

Hospitalit­y on the other hand, will thrive with nearly 22,000 more waiters needed an 17,000 extra chefs.

Mr McCrindle said the encouragem­ent in recent years for people to study STEM subjects – science, technology, engineerin­g and mathematic­s – had been validated with profession­al, scientific and technical services roles to rise by 106,600.

“What surprised me is that the fears about automation leading to large-scale job losses that sometimes come up in these big picture reports is not borne out here.”

Mr McCrindle said the future for working women was bright with big growth in sectors such as health, caring and education which were traditiona­lly strong female employers.

A teenager today will have an average 17 jobs and five careers in their working lives.

The average tenure in a job is currently three years.

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