The McCrindle Blog

Research has shown that more than half of Australian workers want to leave their job this year. The main reason for this is 'not being able to grow professionally'.

Social researcher and Research Director of McCrindle Research Claire Madden joins Larry and Kylie on Channel 7's The Morning Show to give us an overview of what we consider the best and worst jobs.

The criteria used in this study examined 200 different vocations and ranked them on factors including salary, environmental, stress, and physical demands.

So while salary plays its role in employee retention, other aspects of a role including workplace culture, work-life balance and opportunities for development are influencers which keep people in their jobs.

Top 5 best jobs

1. Actuary
2. Biomedical engineer
3. Software engineer
4. Audiologist
5. Financial planner

Top 5 worst jobs

1. Newspaper reporter
2. Wood chopper
3. Enlisted military personnel
4. Actor
5. Oil rig worker

With Australia's population growth rate having just increased from 1.6% to 1.7%, the population milestone of 23 million will be reached today, Tuesday, 23 April at 9.57pm Sydney time.

While this doesn't sound like much in percentage terms, it is a population increase of 382,500 in the last year. Our current population increase is the equivalent of one new Coffs Harbour every 8 weeks, or one new Gold Coast every 19 months!

Want to know more?

• Click here to see our Australia at 23 Million Infographic.
• Click here to see Mark on ABC News 24 on this topic.
• Click here to read the full research summary.

Seven years ago McCrindle Research began in a spare room of Mark and Ruth McCrindle’s house. With a psychology background, market research experience, and a passion to conduct world class research, Mark began the McCrindle Research story. 

Since then we’ve been commissioned by scores of clients, completed hundreds of projects, interviewed thousands of people, analysed hundreds of thousands of online survey responses, and interpreted millions of data points for our demographic summaries. Our research has been disseminated through hundreds of media articles, more than 10,000 of Mark’s books, and more than 100,000 of our acclaimed A5 population maps.

As Australia’s leading data visualisation researchers, our infographics, slide decks, whitepapers and research summaries have been meeting quite a need for world class research and analysis communicated in relevant, innovative ways. Our analytics tells us that they’ve been getting thousands of views and downloads each day. 

So if you are looking to analyse your market, identify consumer segments, understand the demographics, engage with diverse generations, or respond to the emerging trends, then check out our research packs, Mark’s speaking pack or get in contact for a quote. Through commissioned research projects, focus groups and online surveys, demographic reports, strategic workshops, and keynote presentations, we help organisations know the times.

In the light of Yahoo's CEO Marissa Meyer placing a ban its employees from working from home, as well as a leading executive of Google stating their preference to have their staff in the workplace, the video below takes a look at the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting.

Mark McCrindle, social researcher of McCrindle Research shares some insights on Sunrise.

"...businesses know that for productivity purposes, they need to have clear communication with staff, they need to have that one vision they're pulling towards, they need to have values alignment, and that team culture, and that of course is hard to do when everyone is working from home."

"...people who work by themselves do say that they feel isolated, that they sometimes feel alone, and they need that interaction as a human driver."

Accessible almost anywhere, at any time, Australia's young people are alarmingly addicted to their phones. Are we surprised?

New research shows a growing concern of smartphone addiction, revealing that 76% of Generation Y Aussies compulsively check their phones every few minutes compared with a global figure of 60%. Research behind the story in the video below shows that people are admitting to checking their smartphones while in bed, on the toilet, and while driving, with 1/6 admitting to texting while driving.

So why is this?

"We used to have a more diversified life so we would have a lot of devices to achieve a lot of different functions. Now that one device with all the apps does it all", says social researcher Mark McCrindle.

That being said, because we are immersed in our digitally connected world via our phones, the risk of lower engagement with the people around you is noticeable. Mark McCrindle says, "I think there is a danger that you can pick up technology skills but lose those social skills, and lose the traditional skills".

Interested in this topic? Read the App-Happy Australia report by McCrindle Research for our analysis of smartphone and tablet use in 21st century Australia. 

While we can't understand each of the world's 7 billion people, or Australia's 23 million, we can come to understand people, our community, and our world in a nuanced way through methods of segmentation. Mark McCrindle, social researcher and director of McCrindle Research explains in this video about generational analysis and what defines a generation.

For more videos click here to visit the McCrindle Research YouTube Channel.

There are more generations today than ever before. In this video is a general overview of Gen X, Y, Z and generation Alpha. Mark McCrindle shares on how the global generations are defined, the influences these different cohorts have in our society, some demographic data.

For more videos click here to visit the McCrindle Research YouTube Channel.

McCrindle Research has released AUSTRALIA STREET, a visual representation of our nation as a street of 100 households.

Click here to download the Social Analysis.
Download the full infographic here.
Watch the video animation here.

Shrinking families but growing homes

Australia Street is a diverse place to live, a mix of cultures, generations, life-stages and professions. There are 260 people living on Australia Street, with an average of 2.6 people per household. It’s a far cry from 100 years ago when the average home had 4.5 residents, but makes sense when considering the average fertility rate among Australian women. In 1961 the average was 3.5; a figure has decreased to just 1.88 in 2011.

Despite households decreasing, house sizes are on the rise! From 1976 to 2011 the proportion of dwellings with four or more bedrooms has risen from 17% to 31%, and the average number of bedrooms per dwelling has increased from 2.8 to 3.1! A reason for this increase might be that nearly 7 in 10 (69%) Australians believed having a bedroom per family member was a middle class staple and not only the domain of the elite (McCrindle Research 2011).

Sandwich generation: multi-generational homes increasing

Another reason for the increased size of houses is likely to be the phenomena of the Sandwich generation – multigenerational households where Baby Boomer parents have grown-up children and their own parents living at home. Gen Ys are staying in the family home longer, with rising property prices, delayed life-stages (like marriage) and longer years spent in education contributing to this. With Australians living longer, it’s also more likely that the grandparents may need additional support.

Hot property: Australia is a neighbourhood on the rise

Our growth rate of 1.5 (above the global average of 1.2) means Australia Street has four new neighbours moving in annually. In fact, if Australia Street was an average street length of 200 metres, we’d be growing at 3 metres per year. However, compared to others in the global street directory, this growth is small. India Street is 11km in length and growing by 180m per year and by 2020 will have overtaken China St to be the worlds “longest”.

Births, deaths and marriages

On this street of 100 households and 260 people, there is a marriage every nine months, a death every seven months and a birth every three months!

Raining cats and dogs

Australia Street is not only home to 260 people, but also 195 vehicles, 45 dogs, 27 cats and 252 fish. It’s your street, it’s our street. Welcome to Australia Street!

For more information about the changing demographic and social trends we are seeing on AUSTRALIA STREET, click here to download the full infographic, or watch the video animation below.

1 in 5 Aussies will do their Christmas shopping via their online devices. So how has the use of mobile technology changed the nature of the retail experience? Mark McCrindle talks about 'showrooming' on Weekend Sunrise.

Of course we all say that Australia's the greatest country to live in...

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, research has shown that Australia has come in second to Switzerland as the best country to be born in in 2013. Mark McCrindle appears on The Today Show to unpack how things have shifted...