The most in-demand jobs in regional Queensland (2026 read)

If you live in regional Queensland, 279 occupations are officially in demand where you are — 259 in shortage across the whole state, plus another 20 rated short specifically in the regions — according to the Australian Government's 2025 Occupation Shortage List (released October 2025, the latest available).

That second group is the interesting one. These are jobs where Brisbane's market is fine but regional employers can't find people: chefs, pastrycooks, enrolled nurses, several types of registered nurse, pharmacy technicians, hospital pharmacists, out-of-school-hours care workers, earthmoving plant operators, miners and train drivers among them.

The numbers

From the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), Queensland ratings:

• 259 occupations rated in shortage across all of Queensland
• 20 more rated "Regional shortage" — short outside the metro area specifically
• 95 of those statewide shortages are trades (technicians and trades workers) — the biggest single group
• Also in statewide shortage: 134 professional occupations (nurses, teachers, engineers, vets and more), 19 community and personal service occupations, and 20 machinery operator and driver occupations

The regional-only list: where the gap is yours to fill

Here are the occupations JSA rates in shortage in regional Queensland specifically on the 2025 list — the state's clearest "we need people out here" signal:

Food: Chef, Pastrycook. Health: Enrolled Nurse, Registered Nurse (Medical), Registered Nurse (Medical Practice), Registered Nurse (Surgical), Hospital Pharmacist, Pharmacy Technician, Medical Radiation Therapist, Environmental Health Officer. Trades and technical: Construction Estimator, Electronic Equipment Trades Worker, Fire Protection Equipment Technician. Machinery and resources: Earthmoving Plant Operator, Miner, Agricultural and Horticultural Mobile Plant Operator, Train Driver. Care and service: Out of School Hours Care Worker, Flight Attendant, plus Urban and Regional Planner.

On top of that, the 259 statewide shortages apply everywhere in Queensland — including the regions. That's where the trades dominate: electricians, plumbers, carpenters, motor mechanics, diesel mechanics, welders, and roughly ninety more. Browse the full list with the Queensland filter at /occupations.

Our read for a regional family

Two honest observations from the data.

First, if your kid is drawn to a trade, regional Queensland is about the strongest market the list can describe: nearly every construction, automotive, electrical and metal trade is rated short across the state, and has been for years.

Second, the regional-only list leans hard toward health, care and food — jobs that keep a town running. A Certificate III in hospitality or an enrolled nursing diploma is a genuinely in-demand qualification out here in a way it may not be in the capital. That's worth knowing before anyone assumes the "real opportunities" are all in Brisbane.

What a regional Queensland family can do with this

Start with the kid's actual interests, then test them: filter /occupations to Queensland and check each occupation's rating and five-year trend. If a trade shortlists, ask the school about a school-based apprenticeship — in Queensland a student can start one from 15, in Years 10–12, paid award wages for at least 7.5 hours a week while the training counts toward their QCE. That's a low-risk way to test a builder's or mechanic's offer while keeping every other door open.

And don't skip the driving and machinery lane: truck drivers, bus drivers, crane operators, excavator and grader operators and train drivers are all rated short in Queensland (train drivers and earthmoving operators specifically in the regions) — solid, licensed paths that rarely get a mention at a school careers night.

What this doesn't tell you

"Regional Queensland" in this data is everything outside the metro area — one bucket. Cairns, Mount Isa, Toowoomba and Stanthorpe are very different job markets, and the list can't tell them apart. Finer-grained regional data exists (JSA's NERO dataset) and we plan to add it, but the shortage list itself stops at regional-vs-metro.

A shortage rating also measures employers' difficulty filling jobs — not how many jobs exist. A tiny occupation can be in shortage with a handful of vacancies. And it's a 2025 snapshot: demand can shift, which is why every occupation page on Workworthy shows the five-year trend, not just this year's badge.

FAQ

What jobs are most in demand in regional Queensland?

Trades top the list by sheer weight — 95+ trades occupations are in shortage across Queensland on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, all of them applying in the regions. The distinctly regional gaps are in health and food: chefs, pastrycooks, enrolled nurses, registered nurses, hospital pharmacists and out-of-school-hours care workers are rated short specifically in regional Queensland.

Is a trade a good option for a teenager in regional Queensland?

The demand data says the market wants trades: nearly every construction, electrical, plumbing and automotive trade is rated in shortage across Queensland, and most have been for five straight years. Whether it's right for your kid is a bigger question than any dataset — but "will there be work" is about as well-supported as the data gets.

What does "regional shortage" actually mean?

It's JSA's rating for an occupation where regional employers struggle to fill jobs but metro employers generally don't. We've written a full plain-English explainer on regional-vs-metro ratings and why they matter for where you live.

How current is this data?

It's the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, released by Jobs and Skills Australia in October 2025 — the latest official assessment. JSA updates the list annually; the next one is due late 2026, and we'll update everything when it lands.