As part of the Committee for Perth’s Future of Work project, a survey gained more than 50,000 insights from over 1,000 people across Western Australia. The results analysed in late 2020 provide a clear picture of the 10 most important factors influencing job choice with notable differences between low and high skill workers.
In general, saving commute time is the biggest single benefit of working from home for all workers.
Male respondents indicated that enough training was available to keep their skills relevant at work; to be participating in training and development; and are more likely to say that they feel prepared for changes in their industry sector.
Female respondents were less likely than males to feel that their jobs are under threat from automation or digitisation.
When examining the data, high and low skill workers have a number of differing views:
- High skill workers are more likely to indicate that job opportunities in their sector are limited and low skill workers more likely to feel insecure in their employment.
- High skill workers are more likely to work from home with growth in hours worked at home as a result of COVID-19.
- High skill workers are more likely to believe that enough training is available to keep their skills relevant at work; more likely to be participating in training and development; more likely to say that they feel prepared for changes happening in their industry; and more likely to see themselves staying in the same industry over the coming 5 years.
- Low skill workers are less likely to say that they need to retrain to stay in employment or that they will lose their job due to it moving offshore or being digitised. Low skill workers are slightly more likely to perceive their job as being at risk from automation.
- Low skill workers are less positive about technology than high skill workers and less likely to use technology in their workplace than high skill workers.
- Low skill workers are less likely to report that technology has impacted the way they perform their jobs than high skill workers and indicated that technology will have no impact on their job over the coming 5-10 year period.
- High skill workers are more likely to change occupations and are more likely to engage in education and training to enable this shift.
- Low skill workers were more likely to engage in employer funded education and training to enable an occupation shift, while high skill workers are most likely to engage in self-funded education/training.
Learn more about the Future of Work project on our website Future of Work | Committee for Perth (en-AU)
