ABS Consultation Hub

From 11 March to 4 April 2025, the ABS gathered stakeholder input on the ongoing maintenance strategy for the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), including components underpinning maintenance, timing of updates, and the framework for prioritising proposed changes. We consulted on the usefulness of the proposed model for maintenance and any barriers you anticipate for implementation of future classification updates. 

OSCA is the new classification developed following the comprehensive review of the Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), which had not been reviewed in its entirety since the first edition in 2006 and was no longer reflective of the modern labour market. The main aim of the maintenance strategy for OSCA is to ensure the classification continues to reflect the evolution of the labour market.

The ABS received 123 responses from all levels of government, businesses, Jobs and Skills Councils, industry bodies/associations, academics and individuals.

We received support for the four proposed components of the OSCA maintenance strategy: statistical design, stakeholder engagement, comprehensive review and quality assurance. Stakeholder engagement received the strongest support, with requests for advance notice to gather data and prepare submissions to the ABS.

Many of you said you wanted a way to engage with us throughout the development process. You would like more time to work with your stakeholders to consult on proposed changes, including the opportunity to provide comment on final proposals before publication.

You suggested additional components that we will continue to take into consideration, such as:

• increasing the visibility of traditionally female-dominated occupations

• ensuring representation of occupations specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

• ensuring alignment with other occupation systems and international standards supporting labour mobility and policies, including trans-Tasman harmonisation by collaborating with Stats NZ to map occupation systems for comparability

• requesting the ABS to take on a greater leadership role in encouraging adoption of updates.

The overwhelming majority of you indicated you would implement the proposed updates to OSCA over the next 5 years. Over 80% of you told us that you plan to implement the next update in 2027, and 76% of you said you would implement all three. Those of you who would not implement all three updates either were not responsible for implementation or preferred to wait until completing initial transition to OSCA 2024 Version 1.0.

You told us that the time between updates to ANZSCO had been too long. Most of you indicated that the current proposed timing for OSCA strikes a fair balance between update frequency and what is realistically implementable.

However, there was no consensus on how often updates should occur. Some of you called for updates to be made immediately, especially those who rely on updates to reflect changes in specific occupations of concern.

Others expressed concerns about their ability to implement changes as frequently as we proposed. Those of you responsible for systems and reporting that require an overhaul of metadata for each classification update tended to prefer updates every 5 to 10 years.

Your responses to the barriers to implementation of OSCA question showed us that we have a good grasp of your key concerns. Almost one third of you reported no barriers to implementation. The most significant barrier identified was “Not having contemporary data at the time of the classification update”, followed closely by “Insufficient resources (such as time, money, or personnel required to implement)”.

You were very supportive of the proposed framework to determine how a submission will be prioritised. You predominantly agreed there needs to be a strong emphasis on national priorities and the broader societal impact.

One quarter of your responses to this consultation included occupation-specific feedback in addition to comments on the proposed maintenance model.

We thank those of you who participated for taking the time to provide feedback. Your feedback will help to shape the OSCA maintenance strategy which we will publish on 28 July 2025.

We heard that you have appreciated the opportunity to engage with us. Building on the strong stakeholder engagement we developed to deliver OSCA 2024 Version 1.0, we will incorporate your suggestions for advance notice of consultations and a continuous feedback loop. We are aware that some issues cannot be resolved without detailed discussions. We commit to having these discussions as required.

To further aid implementation, we will continue to strengthen our new partnerships with key government bodies whose lists, informed by OSCA, are essential for economic planning, workforce development and policy delivery. These partnerships will also help to ensure updates to OSCA are driven by issues of national importance – reflecting both your priorities and our shared commitment to focussing on what matters most for Australia’s workforce and economy.

We recognise that the proposed update model does not work for everyone, and we will review it after publishing OSCA 2030. We also recognise that you had additional occupation-specific feedback on the current classification. We have already begun to prepare the next round of updates, including some generated through this consultation, and will be providing more information on how to participate in the next update soon.

We are committed to providing data alongside classification updates and providing correspondence files and coding tools to support your use of the classification. We will discuss how data will be presented with classification updates in the maintenance strategy, in recognition that these data will support users’ analytical needs during the maintenance cycle. 

In addition to the maintenance strategy, reinforcing our ongoing commitment to stakeholder engagement, we will be maintaining the About OSCA page for information on the latest developments to OSCA. This will include timelines for future releases and consultations.

The Australia Bureau of Statistics undertook a consultation process from December 2024 to February 2025 canvassing views on early experimental estimates of the total hours spent on unpaid care, and their monetary value. These new measures will improve the visibility of the contribution of unpaid care to society.

The ABS intends to publish unpaid care estimates on an annual basis in the future. In addition, sex and age demographic breakdowns will be included in the existing Labour Account estimates to facilitate a meaningful point of comparison with some paid work equivalents (timing for the release of the aforementioned components to be determined).

The consultation process sought stakeholder views on the following aspects of the measurement of unpaid care:

• The definition of care work,
• Valuation methods for unpaid care and the ABS’ preferred approach,
• Market replacements for unpaid care activities,
• Presenting unpaid care estimates in context,
• Additivity across various unpaid care estimates,
• Utility of age groupings presented, and
• Unpaid adult care measurement.

A large number of responses were received during the consultation period, from both individuals and organisations. The consultation highlighted the importance of recognising the contribution of unpaid carers and supported the ABS for moving towards measuring this activity on a regular basis.

Main themes emerging from the consultation responses included:

• The vast majority (84%) of responses indicated broad support for the ABS definition of care work.
• The vast majority (88%) of responses indicated it would be useful for the ABS to publish a range of estimates using different methodologies.
• The majority (72%) of responses indicated it would be useful to present estimates using the median wage rate for context.
• The majority (60%) of responses indicated publishing sex and age totals separately without forced alignment would be most useful.
• Most responses (38%) indicated no preference for whether age groupings are presented consistently with paid work age groups.

Since the consultation period, further work has been undertaken to build on the initial estimates of unpaid childcare published in November 2024. This work has focussed on populating estimates of unpaid adult care and producing a full time series of both unpaid childcare and unpaid adult care. These additional steps will be described in an upcoming information paper in late June 2025; a series of data download spreadsheets will also be made available as part of this release.

In compiling these estimates, the ABS has incorporated key aspects of feedback received through the consultation process, this includes:

• publishing a range of measures for various replacement cost options,
• maintaining separate totals for sex and age without forcing alignment,
• presenting age groups which are the most accurate and useful for unpaid care, including separating the 55 years and older age group to 55 to 64 years and 65 years and over, and
• presenting a median wage rate to provide context to the estimates.

The consultation process also highlighted some aspects of unpaid care which were beyond the scope of these first set of experimental estimates. The ABS will continue to investigate and consider these suggestions and will look to incorporate aspects which can be measured in future iterations where possible, given input data source constraints and limitations.

Examples for potential future work include:

• Separately identifying and valuing care for children with a disability.
• Accounting for varying “intensity” of unpaid care provided, for example through accounting for the number of unpaid carers present in a single household.
• What would unpaid care be valued at if a carers payment or equivalent were applied instead of a replacement cost wage rate?
• Separately identifying short term care provided to adults, which is conceptually outside the scope of our care framework, however, may be captured in Time Use Survey estimates.
• Expanding our definition of care to incorporate additional elements where possible.
• Modelling additional financial aspects or costs to the unpaid carer, for example lost superannuation or leave entitlements.

The ABS would like to thank all those who provided responses through the consultation process and the important role this played in shaping the development of unpaid care estimates. For any further comment or information, please contact the ABS by emailing unpaid.care.consultation@abs.gov.au

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) commenced a second round of public consultation on the Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL) on 2 October 2024 and was open for 11 weeks. The first round of public consultation, held in late 2023, sought feedback on the scope of the review. The second round of public consultation sought feedback on the proposed changes to the classification as well as any key implementation issues for users of the ASCL.

The aim of the review is to update the ASCL to reflect the Languages used in the current Australian community. These updates will help ensure the production of high-quality data, improved data analysis and informed decision making. Submissions from this second round of public consultation will inform the changes made to the ASCL in preparation for the 2026 Census.

A small number of submissions were received from individuals and organisations.

Submissions received suggested:

• Additional languages
• Changes to ASCL labels and the placement of languages in the new structure
• Changes to the ASCL that have not been investigated in the current review.

The ABS did not receive any submissions that raised major concerns about the proposed changes to the ASCL.

The ABS has completed reviewing these submissions and finalising changes to the ASCL. The updated version of the classification, which implements the findings from the 2023-24 review, will be published on the ABS website on 28 March 2025.

The ABS thanks those who have taken the time to provide feedback during the two phases of consultation. 

Any feedback that has been provided, but not investigated in the current review, will be considered in the next review of ASCL.

Future consultation

While this was the final round of public consultation on the proposed changes to the ASCL, you can provide feedback on the ASCL at any time, by contacting the ABS using the email address below.

Any questions?

Please email standards@abs.gov.au with any questions on this consultation or for further information.