The research, commissioned by Future of Work expert Dr Jo Winchester, also found 8 in 10 Australians believe cost-of-living pressures are causing young people to prioritise jobs that pay well over jobs they genuinely enjoy, highlighting the growing financial anxiety influencing career decisions across the country.

“… partly what is making it difficult at the moment, is the rise in parent anxiety,” Winchester tells EducationHQ.

“So we have this generation of parents that are really involved in their kids lives, which is really fantastic, but it also means that they’re quite anxious about their kids’ future and how the world of work is changing.”

For more than a decade, Winchester taught and mentored thousands of university students, guiding future teachers to develop professional skills, adaptability, and confidence.

These days as an educator, academic and careers mentor, she helps parents, teachers, young people and employers navigate the changing future of work.

The businesswoman says while young Australians are often encouraged to “be practical” when making career choices, decisions driven primarily by financial fear rather than personal fit can lead to burnout, dissatisfaction and uncertainty later on.

“If a young person chooses a pathway purely because it seems secure, without understanding whether it aligns with their strengths, values, temperament and long-term goals, they can end up feeling disconnected, burnt out or unsure of what comes next within just a few years,” she says.

Uncertainty now, Winchester says, is also a major issue.

“For older generations, your 20s were more of a time of discovery, there was a sense that you could either go to uni or have an entry-level job that was often an experiment – there wasn’t this necessarily pressure to have it all figured out at 18, because you felt like you had time.

“What I’m seeing with the young people I work with and teachers, is that growing numbers of young people in university are working full-time as well as studying full-time because they feel they have to start now to save money for that deposit for a house and that financial security.

“There’s more financial insecurity, the rising cost of living, housing, that’s all culminating in this environment where parents are like ‘I don’t know how to advise my child on the best path’.”

If a young person chooses a pathway just because it seems secure, without understanding whether it aligns with their strengths, values, temperament and long-term goals, they can end up feeling disconnected, burnt out or unsure of what comes next within just a few years.

With careers advisors as rare as hens’ teeth in schools, it’s left to teachers to moonlight as counsellors – something they might not be well trained in, even if they had the time to spare.

“I was a teacher, I’ve got a lot of teachers in my family and I have a lot of respect for teachers, but I feel like teachers are so busy, they’re (sometimes not always) connecting with parents and not really engaging in those careers-related conversations with them...”

Winchester says poor career fit can often play a significant role when people enter pathways primarily seeking stability rather than genuine alignment, and schools can and should be doing more to help students better negotiate the path ahead.

She says while schools communicate with parents about careers through subject information nights and newsletters, it’s a strategy that simply isn’t working.

Students need experienced advice to help support confident conversations about education, career pathways and workforce readiness.

“Schools need to be more creative and look at who is their school community, who are their parent community, (and ask) how can I actually engage them in a really robust conversation about careers and about what’s out there.”

Winchester says there’s a danger that young people will keep making fear-based career choices, then blame themselves when those choices don’t feel sustainable.

“We need to stop framing career decisions as passion versus security.

“The real goal is helping young people find the overlap between what they care about, what they are good at, what the economy needs and what they can realistically sustain financially.

“There are things that will come out of AI that we can’t predict. We don’t know what’s going to take over. The best I think is to just keep following your interests, keep up to date with the changes in that space, in that career, because it’s already changed.”

Winchester says young people should not feel pressured to have everything figured out immediately.

“Career development should be viewed as a series of stepping stones that build skills, confidence, experience and clarity, not one perfect decision made at 18.”

Tips for teachers to help those students feeling unsure about their future

  • Think in stepping stones, not dream jobs

Advise them to focus on opportunities that help them build experience, confidence, skills and clarity, rather than feeling pressure to land their “perfect” career immediately.

  • Focus on fit, not just security

A career may appear stable on paper but still be unsustainable if it does not align with a person’s strengths, values, temperament or long-term goals.

  • Keep passion and practicality in the same conversation

The goal is not choosing one over the other, but making financially sensible short-term decisions while continuing to build toward work that feels meaningful and sustainable long-term.

Winchester suggests young Australians are growing up in a world where stability feels harder to achieve than ever before, so it makes sense that many are approaching career decisions cautiously.

“But when fear becomes the main driver of those decisions, young people can lose the opportunity to properly explore who they are, what motivates them and where they are most likely to thrive long-term,” she says.