OSCA skill levels vs ANZSCO skill levels 1–5: what changed

OSCA — the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, released by the ABS in December 2024 — is the successor to ANZSCO for Australian statistics. A common question is whether OSCA threw out the familiar ANZSCO skill-level scale. The short answer: it kept the scale, but moved many occupations on it.

ANZSCO’s 1–5 scale, in one line

ANZSCO ranks every occupation on a five-tier skill level, where Skill Level 1 maps to a bachelor degree or higher and Skill Level 5 is the lowest (a Year 10 / short on-the-job-training band). Skill level is an attribute of the occupation, not the worker — it reflects the education, training and experience needed for competent performance of the role’s tasks. This scale underpins the major-group structure: roughly, Major Group 2 (Professionals) is Skill Level 1 work, while Major Group 8 (Labourers) sits at Skill Level 5.

OSCA keeps five skill levels

OSCA did not drop the concept and did not change the count. Per the ABS conceptual model, “OSCA assigns occupations to one of five skill levels.” Skill level is still an attribute of jobs rather than individuals, and it is still measured operationally across the same four dimensions ANZSCO used:

• formal education and training, measured against the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)
• previous relevant experience
• on-the-job training
• personal attributes, where the other three do not fully describe the requirement

So the yardstick is essentially unchanged. If you understood ANZSCO skill levels, you understand OSCA skill levels.

What actually changed: where occupations land

The change is not the scale — it is the placement. The ABS summary of major changes describes a tidying of the major-group boundaries by skill level:

• Major Group 2 (Professionals) was reworked to contain only Skill Level 1 occupations. Roles previously grouped with Professionals but assessed at a lower skill level were moved out to better-fitting groups.
• Major Group 7 (Machinery Operators and Drivers) had its scope expanded to include Skill Level 3 occupations, alongside the Skill Level 4 occupations it already held.
• More broadly, occupations were re-sorted using skill level together with skill specialisation, so a given role can sit in a different major group under OSCA than it did under ANZSCO — even though the 1–5 definitions themselves did not move.

OSCA is also a finer classification overall: still a five-level hierarchy (major group → sub-major → minor → unit group → occupation) with the same 6-digit occupation identifier and the same eight major groups numbered 1–8, but with more sub-major groups, minor groups and unit groups than ANZSCO 2022 carried. The OSCA structure page confirms major groups are “formed using a combination of skill level and broad skill specialisation” — so skill level remains a core organising principle, not just a label bolted on afterwards.

Why this barely touches migration — yet

Here is the part that matters for anyone reading this for a visa rather than for statistics: skilled migration still uses ANZSCO, not OSCA. As of 2026, the occupation lists (the CSOL, MLTSSL, STSOL, ROL), the skills-assessment frameworks, and the visa nomination forms all reference ANZSCO codes and ANZSCO skill levels. OSCA was built for ABS statistical collections — the census, labour-force surveys — and adoption by Home Affairs and the assessing authorities is a separate decision that has not landed.

That means the skill level that gates a pathway today is the ANZSCO one. When a Skills in Demand 482 Specialist Skills stream excludes Major Groups 3, 7 and 8, it is excluding them as ANZSCO defines them — not as OSCA re-sorts them. If migration ever migrates onto OSCA, the re-sorting above could shift which major group an occupation reports under, which is exactly why it is worth understanding now. But do not pre-empt it: read your code against ANZSCO until an official Home Affairs page says otherwise.

Check before you rely on it

OSCA is the live ABS classification and ANZSCO remains the migration classification, but both are maintained and both can change. Confirm the current position on the ABS OSCA pages and on the relevant Home Affairs page before acting on anything here.

To find your ANZSCO 2022 code and its skill level, browse the occupation index. If you are unsure which code fits your background, the CV matcher at app.anzscofinder.com matches your CV to the closest codes and shows its working.

For advice on whether a pathway is right for your situation, speak to a registered migration agent. We find codes and show sources. We do not give migration advice.