Employment Outlook
Receptionist
Average wage for
Employment Levels
Around 162,200 people are currently employed as Receptionists in Australia. This is set to increase slightly to 175,000 people by 2019, according to the Department of Employment.
Employment by State
29% of all Receptionists are employed in NSW. The area with the lowest number of Receptionists is NT, with only 1.3%.
Gender Split
This is a very female dominated industry with 5.7% of Receptionists being male and 94.3% female.
Age Brackets
The most popular age for people working as Receptionists is 45-54 years old, with 20.5%. A small percentage (5.7%) of people get into this career path older, aged 60-64. There is also a number of people who enjoy a career as Receptionists, with 15.4% aged 35-44.
Hours Worked
Receptionists work an average of 36.3 hours a week which is 4.6 hours lower than the average for all occupations.
Education Level
The majority of Receptionists have a Year 12 qualification (30%) or are at a Years 11 & 10 level (21.7%). 44.9% of people have a Cert III or higher, whilst 55.1% have a qualification which is Year 12 or lower.
Receptionist Duties & Tasks
- Greeting and welcoming visitors, and directing them to the appropriate person
- Arranging and recording details of appointments
- Answering inquiries and providing information on the goods, services and activities of the organisation
- Answering, connecting and transferring telephone calls
- Receiving and resolving complaints from clients and the public
- Receiving and distributing correspondence, facsimile messages and deliveries
- Maintaining the reception area
- Advising on and arranging reservations and accommodation
- May perform other clerical tasks such as word processing, data entry, filing, mail despatch and photocopying
*The information provided on this page is from the Department of Employment’s Job Outlook website. All salary ranges are from Payscale. Where jobs are not exact matches, job areas have been used. This information is to be used as a guide only.
Helping Australians realise their potential
for over 125 years.
Open Colleges Pty Ltd ABN 61 000 011 692 Provider Number 90796 | Integrated Care & Management Training Pty Ltd ABN 82 003 899 527 Provider Number 90197 | YourLife Health & Learning Inc t/a Open Colleges School of Health ABN 39 742 730 429 RTO 40049 CRICOS Provider 03733E
© Open Colleges 2020-2026. Except as permitted by the applicable copyright law, you may not reproduce or communicate any content from this website, including any files downloadable from this website, without the permission of Open Colleges.