Submission to the ABS on the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA)
The Community Council for Australia (CCA) supports the changes proposed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to the 2027 Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) consultation draft. In particular, we support inclusion of the occupation of ‘221232 Fundraising Manager’ under the amended category ‘2212 Communications and Fundraising Professionals.’
The ABS is an important source of information on the charity and not-for-profit sector, and the changes will allow a more accurate depiction of the sector’s workforce. The CCA notes that there is scope to further improve the OSCA by including specialised occupations from the charity and not-for-profit sector, such as in philanthropy and grant-making, social impact, community development, advocacy, and volunteer management.
We also note that the charity and not-for-profit sector remains underserved by ABS datasets, and the addition of a new non-profit-related occupation does not address the pressing data needs of the sector.
According to the ABS Non-Profit Institutions Satellite Account – when it was last measured, in 2012-13 – the not-for-profit sector added $54.8bn to the Australian economy. The sector employs 1.6 million people, according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. The ABS already measures workforce data across all industries – but does not generally link the data it publishes to organisations identified as charities and non-profit organisations. This leads to a significant epistemic weakness for the sector: it cannot argue its policy case on the same data available to other industries and sectors.
While the CCA strongly supports the inclusion of the Fundraising Manager occupation in the OSCA, with its focus on fundraising for the non-profit sector, it would be of considerable value if the ABS were able to provide more relevant data on the charity and non-profit sector. This could be done relatively straightforwardly, by:
- Reinstating the Non-Profit Institutions Satellite Account
- Enabling published workforce data to identify the employing sector alongside occupation, including whether workers are employed by a charity or not-for-profit organisation, government or for-profit organisation
- Including a consistent charity or non-profit indicator across relevant ABS workforce statistics, publications and datasets, enabling the sector to be identified and analysed and its contribution to employment and economic activity to be better understood.
CCA’s Full Submission: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consultation draft: Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA)
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