By Angus Delaney and Craig Butt
Birds of a feather flock together, they say. But what about bosses? And lawyers?
Analysis by The Age using data from the latest census has shed light on the most common job in each Melbourne suburb, showing that certain occupations have carved out distinct territories.
In Brighton, Toorak, Middle Park and Albert Park, chief executives and managing directors are most prominent in the numbers. Then there’s “Solicitor Land”, a bloc of five suburbs in the inner north where that profession outnumbers all others. The most common job held by people living in the CBD, meanwhile, is a waiter’s.
The map below shows the most common job in each suburb of inner Melbourne, and a more zoomed-out version showing all of Greater Melbourne can be found further down this article. Keep in mind that the map demonstrates the most common job in each suburb; it does not mean that more than half of the workers do that job.
It was all yellow: The rise of sales assistants in Melbourne
Sales assistants (yellow on the map above) were the most common job in 341 of Greater Melbourne’s 378 suburbs with a working population of greater than 1000 people. With more than 100,000 workers listed in this profession, it is by far the most common job among Melburnians.
That is partly due to how the ABS classifies occupations, with the job acting as a catch-all for many retail professions. Collingwood, Richmond, Prahran, St Kilda West, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne all have sales and marketing managers in common as their most prominent job.
You can see a list of the 10 most common jobs in your area – and whether yours is one of them – using our interactive. Type your job in the box below and follow the prompts to our visual story. It starts out by taking you through the typical earnings for your occupation before breaking down the top jobs in your suburb.
If you’re having trouble viewing the interactive, please click here
Clout along the bay, legal eagles head north
Chief executives and managing directors (black on the map) hold the most common job in four affluent suburbs, three of them on the bay (Toorak is the exception), while solicitors are top in the adjoining (red) suburbs of East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, Carlton North and Clifton Hill.
Other notable suburbs include Southbank for commercial cleaners and Docklands for software engineers.
Rob Hall, chief economist at consulting firm Informed Decisions, says income, occupation, age and lifestyle all influence where people live.
“The big thing about the location of jobs is the proximity of major employment hubs,” says Hall.
The facilities and lifestyle offered by sections of the inner city can draw groups of people with comparable situations and incomes, leading to certain areas becoming hotspots for professions.
Zooming out from the inner city, sales assistants are the most common job in much of Greater Melbourne, indicated by a sea of yellow on the map below:
Not all suburbs are created equal
But there are some other patches of colour – truck drivers (red) are the most common job in Mickleham and its surrounding suburbs in Melbourne’s north, as well as in a pocket in Melbourne’s west near Cobblebank.
In Tarneit and neighbouring suburbs, storeperson (someone who receives and sorts goods in warehouse) is the most common job. Many large retailers have distribution centres in these areas.
“That’s the whole heart of the freight and logistics industry in Melbourne,” says Hall.
Vegetable grower (green) is the most prolific profession in Werribee South, while Heidelberg West is home to lots of aged and disabled carers (orange). Defence force member (black) is the most common job in Yallambie, the site of an army training base.
Neighbouring suburbs sharing a common job is largely coincidental, says Australian National University demographer Liz Allen, with the major factors determining where someone lives being affordability and lifestyle.
Allen says education level and income – which give people more agency – are equally important in determining where people live. Census data shows the inner city has higher levels of income and education than Greater Melbourne.
“We’re not seeing that people see a whole bunch of people that perhaps work in their industry located in an area so they locate there. It is far more about ‘well, can I afford this area, given the amenities that I prioritise?’” says Allen.
“A public school in inner-city Melbourne is not the same as a public school on the fringes of the western suburbs of Melbourne,” she adds.
“We have this insidious myth that Australia is a largely egalitarian place. Geography shows us that it is not.
“Australia has a class system, and it is largely determined by your postcode.”
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