The most in-demand jobs in Queensland (2026 read)

280 occupations are officially in demand in Queensland — 259 in shortage statewide, 20 in regional Queensland specifically, one metro-only — according to the 2025 Occupation Shortage List from Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), released October 2025 and the latest available. Professionals (134 occupations) and trades (95) carry the list, and Queensland has a distinctive engineering gap the national list doesn't show.

The numbers

From the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, Queensland ratings:

• 280 occupations in shortage out of 916 rated — down from 332 in 2024
• By group: 134 professional occupations, 95 trades, 19 community and personal service, 20 machinery operators and drivers, 7 labourers
• 20 occupations short in regional Queensland specifically — chefs, enrolled nurses, hospital pharmacists and train drivers among them
• 9 occupations in shortage in Queensland but not nationally — five of them engineering professions

What's in demand in Queensland

Trades — the deepest bench. All the national stalwarts are rated short in Queensland: electricians, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, tilers, glaziers, motor mechanics, diesel mechanics, panelbeaters, fitters, welders, metal fabricators, airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics, bakers, butchers, hairdressers. Most have held a Queensland shortage rating five years running.

Health and teaching. Registered nurses across the specialties, midwives, dentists, sonographers, occupational therapists — plus teachers from early childhood to special education.

Queensland's own signature: engineers. Five engineering professions are in shortage in Queensland but not nationally on the 2025 list: Chemical Engineer, Materials Engineer, Electronics Engineer, Industrial Engineer and the broader engineering-professionals category. Add Cyber Security Analyst, Nurse Researcher, Environmental Manager and Motor Vehicle Parts Interpreter, and you've got the state's distinct list. Our read: between resources, energy projects and a growing tech sector, Queensland's appetite for engineers outruns the national market — good news for a kid who likes maths and good news for one who likes utes, because someone has to build and maintain what engineers design.

The wider bench. Also short in Queensland (and in every other state, so the ticket travels): physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, retail pharmacists, ambulance officers, intensive care paramedics, dental hygienists, aged and disabled carers and child care workers. And the machinery-and-driving lane — truck drivers, bus drivers, crane operators, excavator and grader operators, train drivers — carries a Queensland shortage rating too, a set of paths that almost never comes up at a school careers night.

What a Queensland parent can do with this

Three moves. Take your kid's genuine interests to /occupations, filter by Queensland, and check each rating plus the five-year trend. If a trade is in the mix, ask about a school-based apprenticeship — in Queensland a student can start one from 15, in Years 10–12, earning award wages while training counts toward the QCE (electrotechnology starts at 16). And if you're regional, read the regional-shortage list above twice: those are the gaps where being local is an advantage, not a limitation.

Our read for Queensland families

Queensland's list is the national story plus two local accents: a regional health-and-food gap (20 occupations short specifically outside the metro area — we've covered regional Queensland in depth) and that engineering signature. For a teenager, both roads out of Year 10 or Year 12 point somewhere real here — apprenticeship trades are short across the state, and the degree-track shortages (nursing, teaching, engineering) are just as visible.

What this doesn't tell you

"Queensland" in this data is one rating from Coolangatta to Cape York, split only into metro and regional. It measures employers' difficulty filling roles in 2025 — not job counts, not pay, not your town. The list also eased (332 → 280 in a year), a reminder that one year's badge isn't a career plan; the five-year trend on every occupation page is the better guide.

FAQ

What jobs are most in demand in Queensland?

Trades in volume (95 occupations in shortage on the 2025 list), health professionals and teachers across the board, and — distinctively for Queensland — engineers: chemical, materials, electronics and industrial engineering are all short here despite not being in national shortage.

What's in demand in regional Queensland specifically?

Twenty occupations carry a regional-shortage rating: chefs, pastrycooks, enrolled nurses, several registered nursing specialties, hospital pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, medical radiation therapists, out-of-school-hours care workers, earthmoving plant operators, miners and train drivers among them. All 259 statewide shortages apply in the regions too.

Is Queensland's skills shortage easing?

Yes — 280 occupations in shortage in 2025, down from 332 in 2024, tracking the national easing. The trades, health, teaching and engineering gaps have been the stickiest. (Counts are JSA's; the stickiness read is ours.)

How current is this data?

It's from the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, released by Jobs and Skills Australia in October 2025 — the latest available. The 2026 list is due late 2026.