Research Jobs and Careers in Australia

The role of the Research and Development (R&D) manager is to determine, implement and monitor R&D strategies and plans to support commercial and policy developments. They are often required to assess business operations, deliver reports and opinions to management and perhaps publish R&D findings.

R&D managers are well qualified, 100% have tertiary qualifications, predominantly a bachelor or higher degree. Wages are commensurate with qualifications: the average weekly wage is $1668, that is $86,736 annually. The gender break up of R&D managers is 70:30 in favor of men, and within the sector the vast majority (almost nine in ten) work full-time.

In the research industry, the average age is 45 years, more than half are aged over 45 (in contrast with national average of 35.2%), but from the years 2006 to 2011, employment levels of R&D managers plummeted by 21.5% to a nationwide tally of 7600 which is in sharp contrast to the average growth across all occupations of 10.2% during that same period.

During each of the years to 2017, employment is tipped to fall 1.7%. And in other statistics –derived from research, of course! – around 8.2% of R&D managers leave the occupation each year. This is lower than the national average of 14.2%.

References: ABS Labour Force Survey, DEEWR, www.jobsoutlook.gov.au, wikipedia.