ANZSCO win for GIA & NGIQ collaboration
By Ian Atkinson, CEO NGIQ
Earlier this year the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) partnered with several Australian Government agencies to produce a targeted update of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). GIA and NGIQ jointly prepared a submission to this project that has been successful in fundamentally changing the way our industry will be counted by ABS and governments into the future.
The ANZSCO, which is jointly managed by the ABS and Stats NZ, describes and covers occupations in the Australian and New Zealand labour markets. The ANZSCO is used to classify ABS statistics related to occupation in the labour market – that is, it is used to see how many people work in each occupation. Occupation statistics are produced by the ABS through the Census of Population and Housing, the Labour Force Survey and the Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours. In addition to producing occupation statistics, the ANZSCO is used by other
organisations to categorise or describe their data, and to support policy development, design and implementation1.
Previously nursery owners and managers could only nominate their occupation as ‘Crop Grower (other)’ or ‘Gardener’. The ABS is recommending a whole new category of farmers called ‘Horticulture Crop Growers’ that will include an important sub-group ‘Production Nursery Grower’. For the first time ever, growers in our multi-billion-dollar industry will now be properly identified, and over time our industry will be better recognised for its scale and importance. The change may take a decade to flow through to government policy. However, make no mistake – this is a significant step forward.
(References)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021, 'Updating the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations', viewed 7 December 2021, https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/updating-australian-and-new-zealand-standard-classification-occupations