The most in-demand trades in Australia

First, what "in demand" actually means

Australia measures trade shortages properly, so you do not have to guess. Jobs and Skills Australia surveys employers who have recently advertised and works out how many vacancies they can actually fill. Its recruitment surveys have repeatedly found employers filling only around two thirds of the vacancies they advertise, and the gap is worst in the trades.

The headline number is blunt: on the government's Skills Priority List, around half of all Technicians and Trades Worker occupations are assessed as being in national shortage. Construction trades in particular have been short of qualified applicants for years, and shortages are worse in regional Australia than in the cities.

So the honest takeaway is that you are not choosing between "in demand" and "not in demand" trades. Nearly all of them are short of people. That is good news for your job security, but it means the shortage label alone cannot tell you which trade to pick.

• •Electrician (general), carpenter, plumber and motor mechanic have been in persistent shortage since the Skills Priority List began in 2021.
• •Shortages are driven mostly by too few qualified people, not a lack of jobs.
• •Regional and remote areas are hungrier for tradies than the capital cities, and often pay more.

The trades with the strongest, most durable demand

A few trades stand out because the demand behind them is structural, not a passing boom. These are the ones where the work is being created faster than trainees are coming through.

Electrical is the clearest example. Electricians are in persistent national shortage, the current workforce is ageing, and the shift to solar, batteries, EV charging and electrified homes keeps adding work. Government modelling suggests tens of thousands more electricians will be needed by 2030. Plumbing is close behind, tied to constant housing, renovation and infrastructure work. Air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics (the HVAC trade) are pulled along by the same construction demand plus a warming climate and the move to new refrigerants.

Welding and fabrication rounds out this group. Metal fabricators and first class welders are flagged as being in shortage with strong future demand, and coded welders (certified to weld pressure vessels and structural steel to Australian Standards) are among the most sought-after tradespeople in the country.

• •Electrical: persistent shortage, ageing workforce, and the energy transition adding new work for decades.
• •Plumbing: tied to housing, renovation and infrastructure, so demand is steady and broad.
• •HVAC and refrigeration: growing with construction, hotter summers and refrigerant changes.
• •Welding and fabrication: strong demand, and coded or pressure tickets make you very hard to replace.

The steady, always-needed trades

Carpentry and automotive are not going anywhere. They may not have the same net-zero tailwind as electrical, but the demand is deep and constant.

Carpentry is the largest trade in the construction industry and has been in persistent shortage for years. If houses and buildings keep going up, carpenters keep working. Automotive (motor mechanics) is a very large trade spread across every town in the country. Cars still need servicing, and the shift to hybrids and EVs is changing the work rather than ending it, though it does mean you will keep training your whole career.

The trade-off with both is competition and margins. Because they are large, well-known trades, plenty of people go into them, and pay for a plain employee tends to sit below the top licensed trades.

• •Carpentry: huge, foundational to construction, and always hiring, but a very physical trade on your body.
• •Automotive: work is everywhere, but EVs mean constant retraining and base wages sit below the top trades.

The more cyclical or moderate ones

Painting and bricklaying are both real, licensed trades with genuine shortages of experienced workers, but be honest with yourself about the outlook.

Government projections rate future demand for painting and bricklaying as moderate rather than strong, and both are tied tightly to the building cycle. When housing slows, these trades feel it first, and both lean heavily on subcontract and piece-rate work where your income depends on how much you physically get done.

That is not a reason to write them off. Bricklayers who are good and reliable actually sit near the top of the trades for pay, and skilled, experienced painters are hard to find. But if job security in a downturn is your main reason for picking a trade, these two carry more risk than electrical or plumbing.

• •Bricklaying: strong pay for experienced hands, but very physical and closely tied to new-build activity.
• •Painting: lower barrier to entry, which means more competition, and demand is rated moderate, not strong.

What the money actually looks like

Qualified tradespeople generally earn well above the all-jobs average, but exactly how much depends heavily on your trade, your experience, where you work, and whether you stay on wages or go out on your own. Because the official figures are refreshed regularly, the honest thing is to send you to the current source rather than freeze a number in this page that will be out of date by the time you read it.

As a broad pattern, the licensed trades tied to construction and services, such as electrical, plumbing and bricklaying, tend to sit among the higher earners, while the exact ordering shifts each time the data is updated. To get a real, dated figure for any trade, open its occupation profile on the government's Your Career site. Each one shows median weekly earnings from the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, before tax, for full-time adult workers. Overtime, remote or FIFO work, and running your own business can push earnings well above the median, with more hours and more risk attached.

• •Check the current median for your trade on its Your Career occupation profile, not a figure quoted second-hand.
• •The published figures are before tax, for full-time adult workers, and rise with experience and location.
• •Licensed construction and services trades tend to sit among the higher earners.
• •Coded and pressure welders, and tradespeople who go out on their own, can earn well above the median.

How apprentice pay works (and why you should not chase a dollar figure)

The qualified wages are the finish line. While you train, you earn an apprentice wage, and it is lower. That is the honest trade-off: three to four years of modest pay to come out the other side qualified and in demand.

Apprentice pay is not a single number. It is set by the award that covers your trade, then by which year of your apprenticeship you are in, and by your age (adult apprentices, usually those who start at 21 or older, are generally paid more than juniors). Your pay steps up each year as you progress. Because it depends on all of those factors, anyone quoting you one flat apprentice figure is guessing.

To get a real number for your trade and situation, use the free Fair Work Pay Calculator. It gives you the actual base rate, allowances and penalty rates for your award and apprenticeship year.

• •Set by: your award, your year of apprenticeship, and your age.
• •It rises each year as you move up the pay points.
• •Get your real rate from the Fair Work Pay Calculator, not from a mate's rough estimate.

The downsides every trade shares

No matter how in demand a trade is, the honest picture includes the hard parts. Go in knowing them.

Trades are physical, and the wear adds up over decades on your knees, back, shoulders and hands. Early starts, outdoor work in the heat and cold, and job sites far from home are normal. You wear the cost of tools, a ticket or licence, and often a ute. And the big earnings you hear about usually come from people who have gone out on their own, which means chasing invoices, quoting jobs, insurance, tax and slow months, not just swinging the tools.

There is also the training reality: the drop-out rate for apprenticeships is high, often because of pay, a poor employer, or not knowing what the trade was really like before starting. The single best thing you can do is get some real exposure first, through work experience, a pre-apprenticeship course, or a day on the tools with someone in the trade.

• •Physical toll and injury risk that builds over a career.
• •Lower pay and hard yards during the apprenticeship years.
• •Real costs: tools, licences, insurance and often a vehicle.
• •The biggest money means running a business, with all the risk that carries.

How to actually choose

If almost every trade is in demand, the shortage list is a starting point, not the answer. The trade you enjoy and stick with will always beat the "hottest" trade you walk away from a year in.

Weigh up how the work suits you. Do you want to be inside or outside, on new builds or fixing and maintaining, working with your head (electrical, HVAC, diagnostics) or building something you can point at (carpentry, bricklaying, fabrication)? Think about where you live, since regional demand and pay are often stronger, and think about the long game, because trades like electrical and plumbing open doors into inspection, teaching, project work and running your own show later on.

Then test it before you commit. Line up work experience or a pre-apprenticeship, talk to a Group Training Organisation (they employ apprentices and rotate them between host businesses, which can be a safer start), and use the government occupation profiles to sense-check demand and pay for yourself.

• •Pick for fit and long-term interest first, demand second.
• •Get hands-on exposure before you sign up.
• •Consider a Group Training Organisation for a steadier apprenticeship.
• •Check the trade's own Your Career profile for the latest demand and pay.