The Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) structure was published in December 2024 and replaces the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) used by the ABS to produce labour market statistics by occupation.
The VPSC strongly recommends that organisations regularly review the occupation codes assigned to employees in their HR systems, to ensure these codes accurately reflect an employee's role title and responsibilities. The best way to do this using the browse and search options in the ABS OSCA classification. For organisations that are unable to undertake an in-depth review of occupational data, the VPSC has developed a conversion guide for both ANZSCO to OSCA codes and PCR to OSCA codes (for health sector), based on guidance by ABS on translating between ANZSCO and OSCA codes.
For the June 2026 Workforce data collections, organisations will be able to choose whether to submit ANZSCO or OSCA codes for their workforce data submission. From the June 2027 Workforce data collections onwards, all organisations will be required to submit OSCA codes in their workforce data submission.