Australia’s 2025-26 Occupation Ceilings: The Full 87-Group Tier List (via FOI FA 26/01/00545)
Australia’s 2025-26 occupation ceilings decide how many people can be invited to apply for a Subclass 189 skilled independent visa in your occupation this program year. What most applicants never see is the tier system behind those numbers: a four-band priority structure, obtained through Home Affairs FOI release FA 26/01/00545, that sorts all 87 ANZSCO unit groups from highest priority (health) down to the groups that are already used up. This article publishes the complete list, explains how each ceiling is built, and shows you which occupations still have real Subclass 189 headroom left. Below you will find plain definitions, the exact calculation method from the FOI document, all four tiers with every occupation and its remaining 189 places, and a read on what the numbers actually mean for your chances. Last updated: July 2026 What Is an Occupation Ceiling? An occupation ceiling is a cap on how many invitations Home Affairs can issue for one occupation group in a single program year. It stops any one occupation from swallowing a disproportionate share of the skilled migration intake, so places are spread across the economy rather than concentrated in a handful of popular fields. Two details matter for your planning. First, these ceilings apply only to the Subclass 189 and the 491 Family-Sponsored stream. State-nominated Subclass 190, employer-sponsored Subclass 482 and Subclass 186, and regional Subclass 494 invitations are not counted against them. Second, ceilings are set at the ANZSCO four-digit unit group level, not the individual occupation. The group ANZSCO 2544 “Registered Nurses” covers many specific nursing roles under one shared ceiling. So your exact job title shares its cap with everyone else in the same unit group. How the 2025-26 Ceilings Are Calculated Here is the part the public SkillSelect page does not spell out. According to FOI release FA 26/01/00545, each 2025-26 ceiling is built in three steps. Step 1: Take the employment stock. Home Affairs uses the average ABS Labour Force employment figure for the unit group, averaged across four quarters to November 2025. Step 2: Apply the tier multiplier. The stock is multiplied by a tier rate: 4% for Tier 1, 2% for Tier 2, 1% for Tier 3, and 0.5% for Tier 4. If the result falls below 500, a floor of 500 places applies. This is why so many smaller occupations sit at exactly 500. Step 3: Subtract other-stream grants. The “Remaining 189 Places” figure is the ceiling minus the 2024-25 grants already made under the Subclass 190, 186, 491 and 494 programs. A dash (“-“) means those grants already met or exceeded the ceiling, so there is effectively no dedicated Subclass 189 headroom left for that group this year. That third step is the number worth chasing. A high ceiling means little if other visa streams have already consumed it. The Four Tiers Explained The tier a group sits in tells you how generously Home Affairs sized its ceiling, and by extension how it reads the national shortage signal. The pattern is blunt: the further down the tiers you go, the more likely your group has been drained by state nomination and employer-sponsored grants before a single 189 invitation is issued. The Full 87-Group Tier List This is the complete list of all 87 ANZSCO unit groups from FOI FA 26/01/00545, with the 2025-26 occupation ceiling and the remaining Subclass 189 places for each. A dash means the group’s ceiling was already met by other visa streams. Tier 1: Health (4% multiplier) ANZSCO Occupation (Unit Group) Ceiling Remaining 189 Places 2544 Registered Nurses 13,929 10,390 2531 General Practitioners and Resident Medical Officers 3,623 2,963 2525 Physiotherapists 1,911 1,553 2524 Occupational Therapists 1,192 1,008 2527 Audiologists and Speech Pathologists / Therapists 1,061 994 2541 Midwives 913 855 2512 Medical Imaging Professionals 896 847 2539 Other Medical Practitioners 830 647 2533 Specialist Physicians 578 473 2526 Podiatrists 500 493 2514 Optometrists and Orthoptists 500 489 2535 Surgeons 500 477 2534 Psychiatrists 500 431 Tier 2: Education and Social Care (2% multiplier) ANZSCO Occupation (Unit Group) Ceiling Remaining 189 Places 2414 Secondary School Teachers 3,219 2,837 2411 Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers 1,583 1,027 2723 Psychologists 1,056 992 2725 Social Workers 1,009 876 2415 Special Education Teachers 552 537 1341 Child Care Centre Managers 500 460 Tier 3: Trades, Engineering, Science and Law (1% multiplier) ANZSCO Occupation (Unit Group) Ceiling Remaining 189 Places 3411 Electricians 1,880 1,594 3312 Carpenters and Joiners 1,481 908 3232 Metal Fitters and Machinists 1,244 873 3341 Plumbers 1,047 891 1331 Construction Managers 1,292 802 1399 Other Specialist Managers 670 533 4523 Sports Coaches, Instructors and Officials 588 522 3223 Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers 775 486 2247 Management and Organisation Analysts 1,011 603 2713 Solicitors 943 850 3611 Animal Attendants and Trainers 500 465 1342 Health and Welfare Services Managers 500 464 2243 Economists 500 461 3421 Airconditioning and Refrigeration Mechanics 500 457 3941 Cabinetmakers 500 456 2519 Other Health Diagnostic and Promotion Professionals 500 456 3332 Plasterers 500 450 2349 Other Natural and Physical Science Professionals 500 441 2347 Veterinarians 500 426 3311 Bricklayers and Stonemasons 500 399 2343 Environmental Scientists 500 397 3423 Electronics Trades Workers 500 395 2241 Actuaries, Mathematicians and Statisticians 500 394 3123 Electrical Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians 500 382 1332 Engineering Managers 500 374 2322 Surveyors and Spatial Scientists 500 372 3334 Wall and Floor Tilers 500 363 2344 Geologists, Geophysicists and Hydrogeologists 500 338 2345 Life Scientists 500 323 2341 Agricultural and Forestry Scientists 500 322 2342 Chemists, and Food and Wine Scientists 500 301 3241 Panelbeaters 500 472 3211 Automotive Electricians 500 466 3331 Glaziers 500 479 3991 Boat Builders and Shipwrights 500 483 2245 Land Economists and Valuers 500 484 3422 Electrical Distribution Trades Workers 500 485 3222 Sheetmetal Trades Workers 500 486 2346 Medical Laboratory Scientists 500 487 2336 Mining Engineers 500 275 2331 Chemical and Materials Engineers 500 237 3322 Painting Trades Workers 523 231 2321 Architects and Landscape Architects 500 221 3122 Civil Engineering Draftspersons and
