RECENT RESEARCH
Researchers: Rachel Macreadie and Anthony Pym
Institutions: University of Melbourne / Universitat Rovira i Virgili
A recent Federal Government survey of over 2,000 Australian T&I practitioners reveals significant levels of dissatisfaction.
It finds that nearly one third of respondents say they are ‘extremely likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to leave the sector. Here we dig into the numbers to try to understand why.
First, 40% of respondents did not answer this question, and 70 of those who did answer it cited retirement as the reason. If we look at the entire survey sample and exclude those likely to retire, the number likely to leave may be closer to 16.3%, which is considerably less than a third. In fact, it is within the range that has generally been found in the nursing and teaching professions in recent years, and much less than the ‘great resignation’ that affected many professions after COVID.
Those most likely to leave tend to have 5 to 15 years of experience and are aged between 40 and 49. This suggests that abandonment could be associated with a time of life when one is looking for job stability. It also indicates that considerable knowledge and skills could be leaving the sector before their full contribution is made.
Much as one might expect abandonment to be associated with the less-spoken languages, in which work tends to be sporadic, the data suggest that it is instead associated with the most-spoken language other than English, namely Chinese. This may be due to factors such as relative oversupply, low remuneration and lack of job security.
The primary reasons cited by respondents for leaving include low pay, insecure employment, lack of career advancement and lack of respect. Individual comments left by some respondents elsewhere in the survey suggest that a degree of market disorder – such as undercutting by language service providers and faked NAATI credential scamming practices – may contribute to the intent to leave, particularly in Chinese.
Importantly, the survey did not ask whether respondents are combining their T&I work with other professional activities. We suspect that, instead of leaving the field entirely, some may be lowering the percentage of their income that comes from it.
Nonetheless, the survey highlights serious issues within the sector – issues which should be addressed by offering better remuneration, improving working conditions, creating more stable employment, and generally recognising T&I practitioners as the skilled professionals that they are.
We thank Leigh Cox of the Australian Department of Home Affairs for providing us with the raw data. All interpretations and opinions are our own.
The researchers’ statistical analysis and references can be found here.
