Revealed: Australia’s fastest growing jobs
23rd Oct 2017 9:32 AM | Updated: 10:58 AM. Coffs Harbour Advocate Electronic Version.
BARISTAS, beauticians and boot camp instructors are among Australia's fastest-growing occupations, as the service sector swamps manufacturing as the nation's biggest employer.
New statistics from the 2016 Census, published today, reveal the number of community and personal service workers surged 19 per cent in five years to a record 1.16 million - more than the number of labourers.
Childcare and aged care workers, chefs and sales assistants were the fastest-growing occupations, the Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.
Australia now has 27 per cent more fitness instructors than it had in 2011, and 25 per cent more beauty therapists.
The nation's bar and coffee culture has spawned 23 per cent more baristas and bar attendants.
But tradies are harder to come by - their number grew by just 22,000, or 1.6 per cent, in five years Even so, one in five men working in Australia has a job as a tradesman or technician.
Men are most likely to work as salesmen, truck drivers, electricians, and carpenters.
For women, the top jobs are sales assistants, nurses, clerks and receptionists.
Four out of five employed Australians work in the service sector, including health care, education and retail.
The IT industry is the top employer of men, followed by cafes and restaurants, supermarkets and road transport.
Women are more likely to work in hospitals, schools, aged care homes or supermarkets.
Jobs in the construction industry grew by 10 per cent in five years - but the end of the mining boom resulted in a paltry half a per cent growth in mining jobs.
Manufacturing is a dying industry, with a quarter of jobs vanishing between 2011 and 2016, leaving just 683,688 workers.
A quarter of the jobs in wholesale trade also disappeared.
But jobs in the arts and recreation industries grew by 16.6 per cent, along with a 15 per cent jump in the number of teachers and real estate agents.
Domestic cleaners are cashing in on the service economy, more than doubling to 36,562 people.
A third of Australia's farm workers are older than 55 - but more than half the nation's hospitality workers are younger than 30.
Despite strong growth in unskilled jobs, Australians are upskilling like never before, with 56 per cent of adults holding a post-school qualification - up from 46 per cent a decade earlier.
Nearly a quarter of Australians have a university degree, compared to 18 per cent in 2006.
Men with a university degree are most likely to work as accountants or computer programmers.
Nursing and primary school teaching are the most popular career choices for female graduates.
The fastest-growing graduate careers are in accounting, nursing, business management, and aged care or childcare.
Immigrants from Nepal, Zimbabwe, Brazil, South Africa and Canada are the most likely to be employed - with at least 71 per cent holding down a job.
A WOMAN'S WORK IS NEVER DONE, AND THAT'S OFFICIAL
Women with full-time jobs are twice as likely as their male colleagues to spend at least 15 hours a week on housework, fresh Census data reveals.
Census program manager Bindi Kindermann said the traditional split between men and women in terms of domestic chores had not changed in the past five years.
"Almost one-fifth of women working full-time were likely to carry out 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work a week, compared to 8 per cent of men,'' she said.
Ms Kindermann said women with part-time jobs were nearly four times more likely than men working part-time to spend at least 15 hours on "unpaid domestic chores'' - which include cleaning, gardening, cooking, childcare and home maintenance.
"While 9 per cent of men who were employed part-time were likely to carry out 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work a week, for women it was 34 per cent,'' she said.
Working from home gave me crippling anxiety
WE’D all love to give up our commutes and earn money from home. For Katie, it was far from the dream she imagined.
Newsonline – Daily Telegraph 03/01/2018
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/working-from-home-gave-me-crippling-anxiety/news-story/c7e420a9384469e204b0c642a40c1149
WE’VE all fantasised about working from home. Rolling out of bed midmorning and beginning work still dressed in pyjamas, avoiding those sickeningly perky co-workers the moment you walk into the building, getting paid while you go about your social life while sneakily working on your phone.
As irresistible as all those things are, for me the biggest drawcard when I started working from home was being able to continue looking after my young son (and avoid childcare fees) while earning a much-needed income. Unfortunately though, “the dream” didn’t last long as the line between personal and professional life quickly went from blurred to non-existent.
To say the thought of work was constantly in the back of my mind is an obscene understatement. Everyday activities were plagued with crippling guilt: playing with my son, relaxing on the couch, eating, showering — I was constantly plagued with the feeling I should have been working.
It got to the point where I couldn’t do anything without the physical effects of anxiety (sweaty palms, increased heart rate and breathing, sickness caused from intense “butterflies”, tears — oh so many tears). I would hide from knocks at the door, praying my son would keep quiet just because I was so terrified of that person staying for a quick coffee. The sound of my phone ringing or receiving a message was another trigger and could leave me in tears.
And equally leaving my son to fend for himself because “I just need to get this done” in turn led to mum guilt.
Anxiety was like a tumbleweed silently rolling along as it collected other aspects of my life in its wake.
While my stress was mostly aggravated by working from home, its power meant I lost control over my emotions in other areas of my life. I would break down if the house looked untidy, stress over neglected relationships and a once mild case of social anxiety saw me avoid even the supermarket.
I often wondered what was wrong with me. Why was I feeling so incredibly stressed by a job that averaged 10 hours a week?
I was embarrassed that I wasn’t doing it with ease. In my mind, and many others, it should be a walk in the park. To be able to work from home earning money while my son and I were under the same roof — surely that’s the perfect gig.
Strangely, a simple tummy bug made me realise I needed to make a change. I realised the stress and anxiety of the imaginary metre-high stack of work multiplying while I was out of action was actually worse than the sickness itself.
Melbourne-based psychologist Catherine Madigan says working from home can be a perfect storm for people who have underlying anxiety disorder.
“Anxiety is a disproportionate level of fear, worry or nervousness in a particular situation.
“The isolation and social deprivation of working from home can exacerbate the condition of a socially anxious individual and lead to them retreating further from society.”
She says there’s often a link between anxiety and perfectionism and expects some people to struggle with juggling work and home life from the one location.
“For some it may be the ideal way to focus completely on their work free from the distraction of co-workers etc, however often the reality is they may experience constant distraction from family, housework, visitors.”
While I’m still regularly reminding myself to let go of the overwhelming feeling of guilt during normal day-to-day activities, I’ve seen a significant improvement by implementing some simple changes.
By setting clear boundaries such as strict work hours, creating a dedicated work space and avoiding the temptation of “quick” email checks during non-work hours I’m creating a much more balanced life.