Jobs and Skills Australia opened consultations on the 2025 Core Skills Occupations List (CSOL) on August 25, 2025. The consultations will run until September 26, 2025.
The review of the CSOL aims to ensure that the skilled occupations available for migration stay relevant to Australia’s workforce needs and labor market shortages.
The CSOL applies to the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186). It gives sponsoring employers the opportunity to fill genuine workforce shortages in eligible skilled occupations on a temporary or permanent basis.
There are over 800 skilled occupations (i.e. Skill Level 1 to 3) in scope of analysis for potential inclusion on the 2025 CSOL. While Jobs and Skills Australia has identified a group of occupations which are targeted for stakeholder consultation, most Skill Level 1 to 3 occupations are open for consultation and all stakeholder feedback will be considered before Jobs and Skills Australia finalizes its advice to Government.
Some occupations must be included on CSOL in line with Australia’s existing international trade obligations
The 2025 CSOL targeted for consultation group:
- is based on labor market analysis for ANZSCO Skill Level 1 to 3 occupations and does not reflect other skilled migration measures in the Migration Strategy.
- Is benchmarked to OSCA 2024 (which includes new and changed occupations) and not ANZSCO 2022 and/or ANZSCO 2013 (which preceded the targeted Skill Level and phased reviews of ANZSCO).
- Is generated from the most up-to-date datasets, while the 2024 CSOL used 2023 datasets and the 2019 SMOL used 2018 datasets and stakeholder consultations (i.e. pre-COVID pandemic).
- Does not include occupations for which Australian citizenship is a pre-requisite for employment, engagement or appointment under the Australian Constitution; federal, state and territory laws and/or for national interest reasons.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.