What is an ANZSCO code? The six-digit occupation number, explained

If you’re applying for skilled migration to Australia or New Zealand, almost every form, checklist and eligibility rule eventually asks for one thing: your ANZSCO code. It’s a small number that quietly decides a lot. Here’s exactly what it is, how it’s built, and how to find the right one for your job.

ANZSCO, in one sentence

ANZSCO stands for the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations — the official system both countries use to name and group every occupation. It’s maintained by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) together with Stats NZ. An ANZSCO code is the six-digit number that points to one specific occupation in that system — for example, 261313 is Software Engineer.

The code matters because the skilled-migration system runs on codes, not job titles. Your assessing authority, the visa lists you’re eligible for, and the occupation description your skills are checked against are all keyed to the code. Get the code right and everything downstream lines up; get it wrong and you can assess against the wrong occupation entirely.

The six digits, decoded

An ANZSCO code isn’t random — each digit narrows the occupation down a level. Reading 261313 (Software Engineer) from left to right:

• 2 — Major group: Professionals
• 26 — Sub-major group: ICT Professionals
• 261 — Minor group: Business, System and Programming Professionals
• 2613 — Unit group: Software and Applications Programmers
• 261313 — Occupation: Software Engineer

So the first digit is the broadest category and the full six digits are the precise occupation. Two jobs that sound similar — Software Engineer (261313) and Developer Programmer (261312) — sit in the same unit group but are different occupations with different code numbers.

Skill level: the other number attached to your code

Every occupation also carries a skill level from 1 to 5, where 1 is the most highly skilled (typically a bachelor degree or higher) and 5 is the least. Software Engineer is skill level 1; Electrician (General) (341111) is skill level 3, reflecting a trade qualification. Skill level feeds into which visas and lists an occupation appears on, which is why it’s part of the picture, not just trivia.

Why your ANZSCO code is step zero

Before a CV, before an English test, before a visa choice, the code is what unlocks the rest:

• It picks your assessing authority. Each occupation is assigned a specific skills-assessment body (ACS for most ICT roles, Engineers Australia for engineers, and so on). The authority is decided by the code.
• It decides which visa lists you’re on. Occupation lists like the CSOL, MLTSSL and New Zealand’s Green List are published as lists of codes. Your code either appears on a given list or it doesn’t.
• It’s the description your evidence is measured against. A skills assessment compares your duties and qualifications to the official ANZSCO description for that exact code.

That’s the whole reason a single six-digit number carries so much weight.

The catch: there’s more than one edition

ANZSCO has been revised over time, and different parts of the migration system reference different editions. You’ll see ANZSCO 2022 (the latest Australian edition), the older version 1.3 and 1.2, and New Zealand’s own usage — and a newer classification, OSCA, is being phased in. The same occupation can carry a slightly different code or grouping depending on the edition a particular form or list uses. (We cover that transition in ANZSCO is being replaced by OSCA — what it means for your code.)

The practical takeaway: always confirm which edition a given list or authority is using, and check your code against that edition rather than assuming one number works everywhere.

How to find your ANZSCO code

This is the part people underestimate. Your job title rarely maps cleanly to one code — titles are marketing, codes are definitions. “Full-stack developer,” “platform engineer” and “backend lead” might all best fit 261313, or might not, depending on what you actually do day to day. The reliable way to find your code is to compare your real duties against the official occupation descriptions, not to keyword-match your title.

Two ways to do that:

1. Read the descriptions directly. Browse the full ANZSCO occupation list and read the duties for any code that looks close. The right code is the one whose described tasks match yours.
2. Let your CV do the matching. Upload your CV to AnzscoFinder and it compares your experience against every ANZSCO occupation, then returns your closest-matching codes with confidence scores and a plain-English explanation of why each fits — per edition. It’s a fast way to get a shortlist you can then verify against the official descriptions.

Whichever route you take, treat the result as a strong starting point to confirm — not a final answer. The code drives your whole application, so it’s worth getting right before you spend money on an assessment.

The short version

An ANZSCO code is the six-digit ID for your occupation in Australia and New Zealand’s classification system. It sets your assessing authority, your visa-list eligibility, and the description your skills are judged against — and because editions differ, it’s worth confirming against the right one. Find it by matching your duties to the official occupation, not your title to a keyword.