Why Basic Computer Skills Are Often Essential for Landing Jobs in Australia

Despite the growing focus on artificial intelligence, many Australian employers continue to prioritise basic computer literacy, with these skills in high demand across the nation.

Key Points

• In the 2023-24 financial year, around one-in-nine Australian job postings mentioned basic computer skills – well above the share of postings mentioning artificial intelligence or generative AI.
  
  
• Administrative assistance, accounting and logistic support are the sectors where basic computer skills are most frequently highlighted in job descriptions. Beauty & wellness, physicians & surgeons and childcare feature the fewest mentions. 
  
  
• There is notable variation within sectors: some job titles in high-requirement sectors rarely mention basic digital skills, while some roles in low-requirement sectors place considerable emphasis on them.

While the world obsesses over artificial intelligence, many Australian employers are simply looking for workers with basic computer literacy. A considerable share of Australian job postings on Indeed mention these skills, particularly in sectors like administrative assistance, accounting and logistic support, and this frequency is a reminder that not all workers possess even basic computer literacy.

Digital skills impact jobseekers in various ways, and a lack of fundamental skills can be a barrier to accessing job opportunities – especially given the prominence of online job platforms like Indeed. For those without the basic computer skills to search for jobs online or format a resume, a large swathe of today’s labour market is effectively off-limits.  According to Jobs and Skills Australia, digital skills – both basic and advanced – are projected to be among the fastest-growing skills required in the Australian workplace. This trend suggests that workers and jobseekers lacking these basic skills are at risk of being marginalised.

Indeed analysed job postings that mentioned basic computer skills by identifying how often generic terms such as “computer skills”, “computer literacy”, “Microsoft Office” and its various programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) appeared in job descriptions. This analysis compared the presence of these phrases across different sectors and job titles for the 2023-24 financial year. 

We found considerable variation in how often basic computer skills were mentioned, both between and within sectors. Even in sectors like administrative assistance, where these skills are frequently required, some roles rarely specify basic digital skills – perhaps because these skills are either unnecessary or assumed to be a given among applicants.

Requirements for basic digital skills vary by sector

In 2023-24, 11.6% of Australian job postings explicitly mentioned basic computer skills in their job descriptions. By comparison, artificial intelligence was featured in only 2.2% of Australian job postings and generative AI in just 0.07% over the same period. Despite the focus on artificial intelligence, demand for basic digital skills outstrips it comfortably.

Office-based roles unsurprisingly had the highest share of job postings mentioning basic computer skills. This includes 41% of administrative assistance roles, 37% of accounting positions and 36% for logistic support. Other sectors like data analytics, insurance and banking & finance also prominently feature these requirements. Many of these are sectors where computers, but not necessarily advanced tech skills, are essential to performing the job.

By contrast, in-person occupations rarely cited basic computer skills. Only 1.1% of job postings in beauty & wellness, 1.2% for physicians & surgeons and 1.5% for childcare featured basic digital skill requirements. In these sectors, basic computer skills may be useful but are not typically critical to job performance.

In some cases, the low frequency of job postings mentioning basic computer skills reflects an assumption that candidates already possess these competencies. For some roles, these basic skills are simply a given. That’s likely true in sectors like software development (6.9% of job postings) where greater emphasis is placed on more advanced computing skills.

Sector highlights

Analysing specific job titles, those featuring a minimum of 100 Australian job postings in 2023-24, revealed significant variation in basic computer skill requirements within sectors, indicating that skill requirements are far from uniform – even within broadly similar roles.

Almost every sector had a job title where basic computer skills were either not required or not mentioned. And most sectors had at least one job title where digital requirements were above the national average.

Highlighting some prominent sectors:

• Administrative assistance: Branch administrators had the highest share of postings mentioning basic computer skills (94% of job postings), followed by documentation officers (78%). In contrast, assistant coordinators (1.9%) and department coordinators (3.4%) rarely required them.
  
  
• Customer service: This sector had the broadest range of basic digital skill needs. While 96% of medical collector roles and 88% of membership representatives require basic digital skills, less than 1% of postings for overnight customer service representative, personal banker and rental agent mention them. This variation possibly reflects the diverse industries employing customer service representatives.
  
  
• Retail trade: Even in a sector such as retail trade, where just 5.6% of sector postings cited basic computer skills, these skills were still essential in roles like assistant buyer (81%) and inventory manager (44%).
  
  
• Management: Perhaps no sector requires a broader range of skills than management and that’s also reflected in basic digital skills. Site administrators (65%) and workshop managers (58%) often need basic computer skills, whereas project leader II had no postings mentioning them and only 1.2% of department heads did.

In contrast, sectors like beauty & wellness, childcare and, to a lesser extent, electrical engineering showed little variation in basic computer skill requirements across job titles.  This uniformity suggests a more consistent set of tasks and skills within these sectors. 

Conclusion

Basic computer skills may lack the allure of artificial intelligence, but they continue to hold tremendous influence over the Australian job market. Basic computer literacy and Microsoft Office tools are the backbone of the Australian digital economy, and jobseekers lacking those skills often find their choices and opportunities limited.

While policymakers are captivated by artificial intelligence’s transformative potential, they must not overlook that there are many Australians who lack elementary digital skills, leaving them particularly vulnerable to Australia’s ongoing digital transformation. Trends in basic computer skill requirements in Australia are broadly similar to those observed in the United States and United Kingdom, indicating that this is a global challenge. 

Callam Pickering is APAC Economist at Indeed.

Last Updated on November 25, 2024 by Callam Pickering