The most in-demand jobs in Australia for 2026 are no longer a matter of guesswork. Jobs and Skills Australia, the federal government’s labour market advisory body, publishes an Occupation Shortage List that ranks more than a thousand occupations by how hard they are to fill. This guide breaks down what that official list says for 2026, which sectors are short of workers, where the gaps are deepest, and how the shortage data connects to Australia’s skilled visa pathways. Every figure here traces back to a government source, not a recruiter’s wishlist.
Is There a “Green List” of Jobs in Australia?
Short answer: no, not under that name. The phrase “green list” belongs to New Zealand, which runs an official Green List of high-demand occupations. Australia uses a different system, and the distinction matters if you are searching for the right pathway.
Australia’s official in-demand jobs sit across two government instruments. The Occupation Shortage List, or OSL, is the evidence base that identifies which jobs are genuinely short of workers. The Core Skills Occupation List, or CSOL, is the migration list that determines which occupations can access the employer-sponsored Skills in Demand visa. When people search for an Australian “green list,” these two lists are what they are actually looking for.
How the Occupation Shortage List Works?
The Occupation Shortage List is produced annually by Jobs and Skills Australia using real recruitment data, not opinion.
The core metric is the vacancy fill rate, which measures the share of advertised jobs that employers actually manage to fill. When the fill rate for an occupation drops below 67 percent, roughly two-thirds, that occupation is flagged as having a high chance of being in shortage. Jobs and Skills Australia then layers in employer surveys, a machine learning model, and stakeholder feedback to confirm the rating.
Each occupation receives one of four ratings: No Shortage, Regional Shortage, Metropolitan Shortage, or a national Shortage. That granularity matters, because a job can be in shortage in regional Queensland while sitting in balance in central Sydney.
The 2026 Shortage Picture in Numbers
The headline figures from the latest Occupation Shortage List set the scene for 2026.
Jobs and Skills Australia assessed 1,022 occupations and found 293 of them, about 29 percent, in national shortage. That is an easing from 33 percent in 2024 and 36 percent in 2023, so the market is loosening, but slowly.
The more important number for jobseekers is persistence. A total of 139 occupations have been in shortage every single year since 2021, which marks them as long-term structural gaps rather than temporary blips. Skilled trades, and education dominate that persistent group.
| Metric | 2026 reading (latest OSL) | Direction |
| Occupations assessed | 1,022 | – |
| Occupations in national shortage | 293 (29%) | Easing from 33% in 2024 |
| Persistent shortages since 2021 | 139 occupations | Structural |
| National vacancy fill rate | 70.2% | Roughly stable |
| Skill Level 3 (trades) fill rate | 54.3% | Hardest to fill |
| Regional-only shortages | 21 occupations | Up from 12 in 2024 |
Healthcare Jobs: Australia’s Deepest and Most Persistent Shortage
Healthcare is the clearest and most durable shortage area on the government list, driven by an ageing population and stubbornly low retention.
Health professionals consistently rank among the most undersupplied occupations in Australia. Registered Nurses and General Practitioners sit at the top of the shortage data, and demand extends across aged care workers, personal care assistants, midwives, psychologists, and physiotherapists. These roles appear in shortage in nearly every state and territory, and many carry strong permanent residency pathways through employer sponsorship.
For anyone weighing a move into care work, the structural nature of this shortage is the signal. It is not a passing spike. It is a long-term workforce gap the government is actively trying to close.
Skilled Trades: The Hardest Category to Recruit in Australia
If healthcare is the deepest shortage, skilled trades are the tightest. Trades are now the single hardest category to fill in the entire Australian labour market.
According to Jobs and Skills Australia, Skill Level 3 occupations, which cover technical and trade roles, recorded a vacancy fill rate of just 54.3 percent, well below the 70.2 percent national average. In plain terms, for every three trade vacancies advertised, employers fill only about one and a half. Construction trades and food trades have at times sat entirely in national shortage.
The roles driving this include electricians, plumbers, carpenters, automotive technicians, welders, and chefs. Demand is amplified by Australia’s housing build-out and infrastructure pipeline, and trades remain central to both the shortage list and the migration framework.
Engineering and Construction Jobs: Building Australia’s Pipeline
Engineering and construction sit close behind, powered by infrastructure, renewable energy, and the national housing shortage.
Civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers remain in sustained demand, with the pull coming from renewable energy projects, major infrastructure, and mining activity. Construction Managers and Civil Engineering Professionals show up repeatedly in the shortage data. These occupations also offer some of the strongest skilled visa pathways, including points-tested routes to permanent residency.
Technology Jobs: Cyber Security and Software Lead the Tech Shortage
Technology is a more nuanced story in 2026, easing at the senior professional end while staying tight in security and specialist roles.
Cyber security specialists and software engineers remain the clearest tech shortages, and the government projects strong long-term demand for digital skills. At the same time, some ICT professional roles came off the shortage list this year as recruitment pipelines recovered. The lesson for tech workers is that broad “software” demand has cooled, but specialised, security-focused, and AI-adjacent skills still command a shortage premium.
Education Jobs: Teachers in Acute Demand, Especially Regionally
Education rounds out the persistent shortage group, with the sharpest gaps in specific subjects and locations.
Early childhood teachers and secondary teachers feature heavily, and shortages are acute for high-need subjects such as mathematics and the sciences. The pressure intensifies outside the capital cities, where attracting and retaining qualified teachers is hardest.
Where the Shortages Are Deepest: Regional Australia?
Location changes everything in the 2026 shortage data, and regional Australia is where employers struggle most.
A total of 21 occupations are in shortage exclusively in regional Australia, up sharply from 12 the year before. The regional vacancy fill rate sits at 67.1 percent against 71.5 percent in metropolitan areas. For skilled migrants, that regional gap is an opportunity, since regional visa pathways carry bonus points and clearer routes to permanent residency.
If you are new to the country and weighing where to land, our guide to working in Australia for the first time in Australia walks through how location shapes both opportunity and competition.
In-Demand Jobs in Australia 2026: Sector Summary
Here is the consolidated view of where the official shortage data points for 2026. Salary ranges are indicative market estimates from job boards, not government figures, and vary by state, employer, and experience.
| Sector | Representative in-demand roles | Indicative salary range (AUD) |
| Healthcare | Registered Nurses, GPs, Aged Care Workers, Physiotherapists | $55,000 to $250,000 |
| Skilled trades | Electricians, Plumbers, Carpenters, Chefs | $75,000 to $130,000 |
| Engineering | Civil, Electrical, Mechanical Engineers | $85,000 to $140,000 |
| Construction | Construction Managers | $140,000 to $160,000 |
| Technology | Cyber Security Specialists, Software Engineers | $104,000 to $154,000 |
| Education | Secondary Teachers, Early Childhood Teachers | $65,000 to $95,000 |
You can cross-check current pay for any of these roles against live market data on our salary insights for Australia page, and browse open roles across Australia to see what is hiring right now.
How the Shortage List Connects to Australian Visas?
For migrants, the shortage list and the migration list work together, and it helps to know which does what.
The skilled occupation list maintained by the Department of Home Affairs is the official combined list specifying each occupation’s ANZSCO code, the lists it appears on, and the assessing authority. The Core Skills Occupation List consolidates 456 occupations into a single list for the employer-sponsored Skills in Demand visa and the Direct Entry stream of the permanent Employer Nomination Scheme.
One detail surprises many applicants. The CSOL is not ranked or capped. There is no limit on how many occupations sit on it, and no quota per occupation. The number of visas granted is driven by employer demand, not by a government priority score. Being on the list means you are eligible, not that you are fast-tracked.
For Australian Employers Hiring Into a Shortage
The shortage data is not only a migrant’s roadmap. It is a hiring reality every Australian business now has to plan around.
When trade fill rates sit near 54 percent, posting a job and waiting rarely works. Employers are increasingly blending permanent hiring with contract and task-based work to keep projects moving while the permanent search runs. CloudColleague connects Australian businesses with verified professionals across permanent roles, contracts, and one-off tasks from a single platform, which is exactly the flexibility a tight labour market rewards.
For professionals, the same data is a green light. If your occupation sits in persistent shortage, you hold leverage on pay, conditions, and choice of employer. The first step is simply showing up where the demand is. You can create a free profile and let the right opportunities find you.
Australia does not have a “green list,” but it does have something more useful: a data-driven Occupation Shortage List that tells you exactly where the work is. For 2026, the message is consistent. Healthcare, skilled trades, engineering, education, and specialist technology roles remain genuinely short of people, and the gaps are deepest in regional areas.
For jobseekers and migrants, that is a map to leverage. For employers, it is a prompt to hire flexibly rather than wait out a shortage that is not going away. Either way, the smartest move is to act on the data while the demand is real.
