The science field in Australia
The realisation that investment in science and technology will provide the scaffolding for Australia’s future economic growth has seen commitment to science research and R&D spending by both government and the private sector burgeon in the past decade. The future of the science industry in Australia is therefore bright.
Australia's research priorities
Factors driving scientific research
Which industries do scientists work in?
The employment market
Salaries
Skills in demand
Find out more
Australia’s research priorities
The increasing consensus that science is a crucial element in Australia’s economic, social and environmental future saw science become a major focus of the public policy agenda during the 1990s.
In 2002, the government announced Australia’s first ever National Research Priorities (NRP), which will be the focus of public science funding and research:
- an environmentally sustainable Australia
- promoting and maintaining good health
- frontier technologies for building and transforming Australian industries
- safeguarding Australia.
Factors driving scientific research
Current social, environmental and economic issues facing Australia and the world are the driving forces behind Australian scientific policy and both public and private research. These issues include but are not limited to:
- global population growth
- climate change, in particular global warming
- issues of food: famine, obesity, healthy eating, genetically modified foods and crops
- the ageing population of many developed countries
- water availability and quality
- power, in particular renewable energy sources
- loss of forests and natural habitat
- salinity
- loss of biodiversity.
Which industries do scientists work in?
Science graduates today are employed in a diverse range of job types across all industries. Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) surveys have revealed that around 40% of science graduates pursue non-scientific professional roles rather than research or industrial positions in science.
More specifically, the Department of Education, Science and Training’s (DEST) Audit of science, engineering & technology skills reveals that in 2004–05 the majority of employees with natural and physical science qualifications worked in the following industry sectors: education 18.7%, business services 17.9%, health/community 12.3%, manufacturing 7.9%, and government administration/defence 7.5%.
The employment market
The employment outlook for science graduates and those entering the science industry is strong. The future employment outlook and growth is also predicted to be strong. DEST’s Audit of science, engineering & technology skills projects an employment growth of 33.3% for natural and physical sciences for the period 2004–05 to 2012–13.
In particular, strong future jobs growth is expected for environmental and agricultural scientists, forestry and soil professionals, medical scientists, and park rangers, according to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ Australian jobs 2007.
Salaries
Salaries for jobs in science have been increasing steadily in recent years. Science graduates earned an average of $40,907 in 2006 (up from $38,775 the previous year) according to The Good Universities Guide 2008.
Beyond the graduate market
Salaries for professional scientists increased by an average of 5.3% over the past 12 months, according to the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia’s 2007 Professional scientists remuneration survey summary report. Within the private sector, salaries rose by an average of 5.8% compared to 4.8% in the public sector.
Skills in demand
Recent results from GCA’s Graduate outlook 2007 survey revealed that graduate employers are having increasing difficulty sourcing science graduates. Over 60% of employers surveyed had trouble recruiting graduates of specific disciplines, and of these, 12% experienced trouble sourcing maths, statistics and science graduates—up from 6.1% in 2005, but down from 18.6% last year.
Find out more
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), www.csiro.au
Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA), www.apesma.asn.au
Australian Academy of Science www.science.org.au