Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has made a submission to Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List (OSL) Stakeholder Survey.

Between 23 January and 11 February 2025, CA ANZ conducted an online survey of 395 members who advertised vacancies in Australia between January and December 2024. The purpose was to identify occupations that might be in shortage across the Australian labour market and respond to JSA’s 2025 OSL Stakeholder Survey which will inform the government’s policy responses to occupation shortages.

The eight occupations we surveyed our members on are Finance Manager, Accountant (General), Management Accountant, Taxation Accountant, Corporate Treasurer, External Auditor, Internal Auditor and Financial Investment Adviser.

We adopted JSA’s survey methodology which uses the vacancy fill rate as the key proxy measure of shortage, with a high likelihood of an occupation shortage indicated where estimated fill rates are below 67%. Our survey found national shortages of three occupations and state and territory shortages of six occupations.

CA ANZ’s recommendations:

1. Preliminary national and state and territory labour market ratings for the 2025 OSL:

• National Shortage – Finance Manager, Management Accountant, and Taxation Accountant
• State and Territory Shortage – Finance Manager (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, NT), Accountant (General) (QLD), Management Accountant (NSW, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT), Taxation Accountant (NSW, VIC, QLD), External Auditor (TAS), and Financial Investment Adviser (NSW)
• State and Territory Regional Shortage – Finance Manager (SA), Accountant (General) (VIC, SA, WA), Management Accountant (VIC), External Auditor (NSW, VIC, QLD, SA), and Financial Investment Adviser (VIC)
• State and Territory Metropolitan Shortage – Finance Manager (TAS, ACT), Accountant (General) (TAS), Management Accountant (ACT), Taxation Accountant (ACT), Corporate Treasurer (ACT), and Internal Auditor (QLD, SA, TAS).

2.  The government should address the Long training gap, which is a primary occupation shortage driver for accounting, audit and finance professionals, by:

• re-focusing Australia’s migration system on skills and migrant quality rather than quantity to tackle skill shortages
• featuring accountants, auditors and finance-related occupations prominently on Australia’s skilled migration lists including retaining these occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List
• supporting more schools to offer accounting subjects and introducing a robust national senior secondary accounting curriculum
• lowering student loan repayments through changes to HECS-HELPS and replacing the Job-ready Graduates package to make course fees fairer.

3.  The government should address the Suitability gap, which is a primary occupation shortage driver for accounting, audit and finance professionals, by:

• including accounting, audit and finance-related occupations on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List
• targeting investments in accounting, financial capability, digital, AI, and sustainability education and skills to build Australia’s workforce
• supporting work readiness programs and pre-employment services to improve employment and migration outcomes for international accounting graduates and migrant accountants and make best use of their skills.