The latest Australian Geoscientist Employment Survey is open for contributions until Saturday, 5th February 2022.
The third-quarter employment survey for 2021 recorded one of the lowest unemployment rates recorded since these surveys commenced more than 10 years ago. Geoscientist unemployment fell to 1.8% in September 2021. The under-employment rate amongst geoscientists (respondents able to secure 25% or less of their desired workload) fell to 6.0%.
This survey is designed to measure whether these conditions have continued. The fourth quarter of 2021 was marked by Australians feeling the impact of the Delta and Omicron strains of the COVID-19 virus, at a time when travel and other restrictions were beginning to be lifted in eastern and central Australia.
Several new questions have been added to this survey. For the first time in the survey’s history, we’d like to ask respondents what their total remuneration is, and how long respondents currently in employment have been with their current employer. There are several reasons for this.
1. We want to gauge whether there is a gender pay gap in Australian geoscience, the range of salaries received by geoscientists with comparable levels of experience and in different industry sectors.
2. Anecdotal evidence suggests that early-career geoscientists are changing employers frequently, at a time when employee retention has become a major focus of employers in many industries. We’d like to begin to understand whether this is the case.
We appreciate that the collection of information like this involves privacy issues. Please be assured that the data collected by this survey is not personally identifiable and is treated as being highly confidential. Only statistical summaries of data are made available to third parties. Remember also that any data collected by AIG are subject to the Institute’s privacy policy and strong, enforceable, Code of Ethics.
We feel that these issues are topical and that the survey results will be of interest to a wide range of members. We also appreciate that reliable results will only be obtained if the survey receives strong support.
The survey only takes about three minutes to complete. Again, no data that could personally identify respondents is collected. We encourage survey respondents to share details of the survey with their friends, colleagues and peers to encourage them to also spread the word and, most importantly, participate. Contributions to the survey are sought from both employed and unemployed geoscientists from all sectors of our profession.
Your completing the survey really helps to make a difference to the standing and knowledge of our profession.
The survey will be open for contributions until Saturday, 5th February 2022. We keep the first survey of each year open a little longer than usual to allow for the summer holiday season in Australia but encourage you to complete the survey now.
