It’s no secret life’s pretty good Down Under: we’ve just legalised the use of MDMA and magic mushrooms for medical use, the new $5 banknote is set to honour First Nations people and it’s rumoured Beyoncé is bringing her Renaissance world tour to town (we live in hope!). But if you needed further proof Australia is one helluva place to live, it has just been ranked the tenth best country to work in for 2023.
A study conducted by Sambla (a leading comparison platform for personal finance) collected and compared metrics from 33 OECD countries, and looked into factors such as average salary, employment rate, childcare costs, the gender pay gap, inflation and overall happiness.
Nordic countries dominated, with Iceland taking out the top spot with a score of 54.2 (out of 60), followed by Denmark, Norway and Sweden, respectively. Rounding out the rest of the list was Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium, with Australia coming in at number ten thanks to a score of 44.3.
Australia rated particularly well when it came to the employment rate and overall happiness, while the data also revealed that the average salary is $55,451. Areas for improvement included the gender pay gap and childcare costs.
Falling just short of the top ten were countries like Finland, Canada, France and the United States of America, while our neighbours across the ditch in New Zealand could only manage 17th place.
And in another feather for our cap, Australia also ranked fifth in the best countries to work if you love the sun, a secondary study undertaken by Sambla that looked at average temperatures and the number of sunlight hours. Is there anything this sunburnt country of ours can’t do?!