Australia’s love of health, beauty and coffee has seen a boost in fitness instructors, beauty therapists and baristas as three of the fastest-growing careers in the country.
New census data shows the number of people working as beauty therapists and fitness instructors has risen by more than 25 per cent in the past five years.
Following closely behind was a 23 per cent jump in bar attendants and baristas, as jobs in sales showed to be the fastest-growing since 2011.
Number of beauticians and fitness instructors surged by more than 25 per cent (stock images)
According to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and rather unsurprisingly, tradesmen are still hard to find. They’ve only increased by 1.6 per cent – or 22,000 – in that time, but still one in five men have a job as a tradesman or technician in the country.
The IT industry was found to employ mostly males while females dominate hospitals, schools and supermarkets.
New data also showed that Australia is shifting more towards part-time work, with twice as many women than men working on a part-time basis, while the average number of hours worked by Australians had fallen from 35.1 to 34.6 hours per week.
Only 16 per cent of everyone employed work for 49 hours or more a week – most of them men.
Statistics also revealed that women are doing the same amount of housework as they were five years ago.
‘Almost one-fifth of women working full-time were likely to carry out 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work a week, compared to eight per cent of men,’ census program manager Bindi Kindermann said.
‘While nine per cent of men who were employed part-time were likely to carry out 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work a week, for women it was 34 per cent,’ she added.
Ms Kindermann also noted a significant difference between genders over an extended period of time: ‘We are seeing the proportion of men in employment decrease over time while for women it is increasing.’
Since 1966, female employment has gone up from 34 per cent to 56 per cent of all women, while men in employment fell from 83 per cent to 65 per cent.
New census data showed the number of baristas had gone up by 23 per cent (stock image)
Significantly, hard work and paying thousands of dollars for a degree still appears to be worth it.
81 per cent of people aged 20-64 years old who have been to university were in employment, compared to 63 per cent of those with no qualifications.
The data also showed some unsurprising correlations between age and occupation.
People under 30 were more likely to be baristas, bar attendants and waiters, while those over 60 were farmers, caretakers and bus drivers.
Women are doing the same amount of housework as they were five years ago (stock image)