Across literacy domains, the level of literacy required for occupations is higher than the level required for home and non-work activities.
For the occupations surveyed, the level of prose literacy required for work for all senior executives was Level 5 and as the education and skill level of occupations decreased, so too did the level of prose literacy required, with Skill Level D occupations saying the lowest level of literacy was required. Responses clustered around Level 4, indicating that for semi-skilled occupations, this is the minimum level of literacy required.
The level of prose literacy required for home and non-work activities clustered around Level 3 although there was representation at Levels 4 and 5.
Document literacy requires the highest level of literacy for most occupations. Although respondents in the low skilled occupations said Level 1 literacy was required, the majority of other occupations indicated document literacy at Level 5 was required.
The level of document literacy required for home and non-work activities clustered around Level 3 although some senior executives and some respondents in Skill Level A occupations said Level 4 and 5 was required for non-work activities.
There was greater distribution for the level of numeracy required for work, but overall, the responses clustered around Level 5 with some representation from occupation Levels 0, B and C indicating Level 4 was sufficient at work. Generally, as skill level decreased, so too did the level of numeracy required for work.
The level of numeracy required for home and non-work activities was reported mostly as Level 3 followed by Level 2. Three respondents said the numeracy they required for home activities was higher than Level 3.
The majority of respondents in occupation Levels 0, A, B and C said they required the highest level of problem solving skills. One person said Level 1 was adequate for work but seven respondents in low and semi skilled occupations said Level 2 or 3 was adequate.
For home activities, no respondents said the lowest level of problem solving was adequate. Ten respondents said the highest level of problem solving skills was required while seven said Level 2 was sufficient and five others said Level 3 was required.
These findings suggest that while Level 3 literacy skills may be considered necessary to function in today’s knowledge based and high technology society, increasingly it seems those in the workforce require higher levels of literacy with most requiring literacy at Levels 4 and 5.