Workforce Plan 2026
Mixed Signals, Future Opportunities
AI is shaping the nature of work across the finance, technology and business sectors.
More than 3.5 million Australians work in finance, technology and business. These sectors continued to create jobs into 2025, but the labour market is now shifting. Recruitment is softening, entry-level roles are becoming harder to access, and AI is transforming jobs, skills and workforce requirements at pace.
Workforce Plan 2026 explores the trends reshaping Australia’s finance, technology and business workforce through workforce data, industry intelligence and stakeholder insights. It also introduces FSO’s new Workforce Intelligence Platform, bringing together workforce, education and economic data in a single environment.
Read
Understand the trends reshaping Australia’s finance, technology and business workforce.
Ask
Ask questions and access trusted evidence-based workforce intelligence through our platform agent.
Explore
Dig into workforce, education and economic data through interactive dashboards, mapping and visualisation tools.
About the report
Finance
The finance sector has grown for a decade, but that growth is slowing. Finance is also the most exposed industry to generative AI in Australia. Generative AI, changing skills needs and regulatory requirements are reshaping the sector, while demand for workers continues to outpace supply.
Technology
Australia’s technology sector is sending mixed signals. The tech workforce has grown rapidly, but growth alone does not tell the full story. Some occupations remain in shortage while others face a surplus, with supply and demand expected to become more evenly balanced over time.
Business
The future of business work is diverging. Professional and managerial roles are growing, while lower-skill administrative roles are contracting and carry the highest automation exposure in the economy. Workforce needs are shifting as demand moves towards higher-skilled roles.
Mixed labour market signals: It’s not yet possible to cleanly isolate the drivers of labour market disruption. AI-driven structural change, post-pandemic correction, and broader cyclical economic conditions are all plausibly at work, and likely all at once.
AI Impacting finance, tech and business roles: AI is already reshaping finance, technology and business work, but how this transition is being managed across the workforce remains unclear.
Technology shifts beyond generative AI are reshaping the sectors: Generative AI leads the narrative, but it is only one part of a broader, rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Leadership capability is critical and not keeping up: Management and leadership capability has emerged as the most consistently identified workforce challenge.
The education and training system is falling behind: the formal education and training system is being asked to deliver capabilities at a pace it is not structurally designed to meet.
Underlying every trend
Equity and participation: This workforce transition is not neutral. Without action, it will deepen existing workforce inequalities.
Peak bodies and unions
Access trusted workforce intelligence to strengthen advocacy, support members and shape workforce policies that respond to emerging skills, workforce and technology trends.
Education and training providers
Identify emerging skills needs and changing workforce demand to inform course design, training investment and the development of programs that align with industry needs.
Government
Access nationally consistent workforce intelligence to test policy ideas, identify emerging workforce challenges and support evidence-based workforce, skills and economic policy decisions.
Employers
Understand how workforce demand, skills requirements and technology adoption are changing to support workforce planning, talent strategies and future capability development.
Workforce Intelligence Platform
The Workforce Intelligence Platform brings together workforce, education and economic data in a single environment, helping users to explore trends across Australia’s finance, tech and business sectors.
- Workforce Plan Agent for workforce questions and insights
- Industry dashboards
- Occupation dashboards
- Education and training dashboards
- Migration dashboards
- Interactive maps and visualisation tools
- Workforce comparison and analysis tools