Two million Aussies in jobs irrelevant to top qualifications, ABS says
Two million employees in Australia are working in jobs where their highest non-school qualification is not relevant, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The ABS defined non-school qualifications as educational attainments other than those of a pre-primary, primary, or secondary education level.
Wanting a career change emerged as the top reason why Australians are not working in jobs where their highest qualification was not relevant.
Other reasons include the lack of positions available and already feeling comfortable in their current job, according to the report.
Meanwhile, 7.9 million working people in Australia said their highest qualification was relevant to their current job. Among them, 6.4 million said they are working in a field of their highest qualification, according to Mell Plumb, ABS head of education statistics.
"While 1.6 million workers were not working in the field of their highest qualification, they did have a qualification that was relevant to their current job," Plumb said in a statement.
Qualifications statistics
Overall, a total of 12.7 million people between 15 and 74 years of age had one or more non-school qualifications in 2022-23.
Of these, 1.4 million people had three or more qualifications, 3.2 had two qualifications, and 8.1 million had one qualification. A total of 6.3 million people had no qualifications.
"The proportion of people with one or more non-school qualifications rose to 67% in 2022-23 from 62% in 2018-19," Plumb said.
"Meanwhile, the proportion of people with no qualifications fell to 33%, over the same time period, from 38%."
