The Australian Bureau of Statistics and Statistics New Zealand have announced that each country will introduce their own tailored occupational statistical classifications.
The Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) has been jointly managed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa (Stats NZ) since it was first published in 2006.
Occupation changes during the comprehensive review have been considered in respect of the Australian labour market only.
For Australia, the new classification will be called the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), 2024, version 1.0 and will be released on Friday 6 December 2024.
The drivers for change are the following:
- The difference between Australia’s and New Zealand’s labour markets is greater than when a joint classification began in 2006. Where this is most visible is when ANZSCO was first published in 2006, all ANZSCO occupations had a common skill level between Australia and New Zealand. Now, 56 of the current 1,076 occupations in ANZSCO have a different skill level in Australia and New Zealand.
- Stats NZ has been unable to participate in the targeted 2021 and 2022 Australian updates, and the comprehensive review of the classification undertaken by the ABS over the past four years. As a result, the updated classification to be released on 6 December 2024 will reflect the contemporary Australian labour market and not the New Zealand labour market.
- ABS and Stats NZ have identified different solutions to meet stakeholder demand.
Even though ANZSCO will change to OSCA in December, ANZSCO will continue to be available on the ABS website.
For more details regarding the changes, use the link here
