Many Australians are overqualified for their jobs – which comes at a price, new data shows

Boarding1Now/GettyImages Close to half of Australians believe they have more education than their job requires, a dynamic that is associated with lower job and life satisfaction.

A quarter of people also cannot fully use their skills and abilities in their current job.

These figures come from the latest annual report from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, released today , with data through to 2024.

It presents new insights on how well people’s educational level, skills and abilities match the jobs they work in.

The HILDA survey has been following the same group of about 17,000 people every year since 2001, which makes it possible to examine how the lives of Australians are changing over time.

The survey is one of Australia’s most valuable social research tools .

I am part of the team that collects and analyses the data – here’s what we found.

Half of workers are overeducated for their jobs Let’s start with the good news.

Over the last two decades or so, access to tertiary education has dramatically improved for Australians.

The proportion of people aged 18 to 64 with a bachelor’s degree has increased from about 14% in 2001 to almost 22% in 2024, making it the most prevalent level of education.

On the downside, people’s educational qualifications, skills and abilities often do not perfectly match their jobs.

The data show that 49.5% of workers aged 18 to 64 were overeducated in 2024, meaning they held a higher educational level than they believed is the minimum required to successfully do their job.

In addition, 25.7% of workers were “overskilled”, meaning they told us they do not use many of their skills and abilities in their job.

Young people and casual employees are more affected by both of these kinds of mismatch.