Another new Jobs and Skills Australia report, Australian Labour Market for Migrants – April 2026, provides a useful snapshot of where employment demand is strongest in Australia and what this means for migrants entering the workforce. While the report is written primarily for migrants and migration advisers, it also contains important signals for VET providers about where labour demand is growing and where training demand is likely to be needed.
The report also confirms Australia’s labour market remains relatively resilient despite signs of softening conditions, with strongest employment growth over the past year occurring in Health Care and Social Assistance (+95,000), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (+80,800), and Education and Training (+52,800).
The largest decreases in employment were in:
- Wholesale Trade (-20,400)
- Manufacturing (-8,700)
- Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (-7,900).
These trends align closely with broader structural shifts already affecting Australian VET providers: growing demand for care, health, disability support and community services training.
The report also highlights the growing importance of migration to Australia’s workforce profile. Western Australia, the ACT and Victoria recorded some of the highest shares of migrant workers in their labour forces, while recently arrived migrants continued to experience higher unemployment rates than longer-settled migrants and Australian-born workers.
Importantly, labour market outcomes varied considerably depending on migrants’ subcontinent of birth, English language capability and years since arrival. For VET providers, this reinforces the importance of foundation skills, English language support and workforce transition programs. Many providers are already seeing this firsthand through increasing enrolments in English as an Additional Language (EAL), foundation studies and employment-focused support services, particularly in metropolitan growth areas.
There are also important regional insights in the report. Health Care and Social Assistance is now the largest employing industry nationally, accounting for 16.3 percent of Australian employment, and features among the largest industries in every state and territory. Mining remains especially important in Western Australia, while Public Administration and Safety dominates employment in the ACT and remains significant in the Northern Territory. Queensland and Tasmania continue to have much larger regional populations outside their capital cities than other states, creating different workforce and training delivery challenges. Collectively the data reinforces that workforce demand is increasingly regionalised and industry-specific, requiring providers to maintain close relationships with local employers and regional economic development priorities.
