mi optometrists

WRITER Andrew McKinnon

As 2025 comes to a close, optometry stands at the threshold of new opportunities, writes Andrew McKinnon from Optometry Australia New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.

By the time you read this, Christmas 2025 will be knocking on the door and 2026 will be hotly in prospect. So how is the optometric market looking from an Association perspective?

It would be disingenuous to suggest that 2025 wasn’t a pretty rough year. For the first time in my many years with the profession, we had to counsel multiple members who had their positions made redundant. I can’t remember that happening before, except in isolated circumstances.

And yes, for the first time probably in the profession’s history, there wasn’t a guaranteed job for every graduate pretty much in whatever area they preferred. But there is work available – one of the big optical groups has (at the time of writing) 62 vacancies across Australia. No, they aren’t in the major metro centres, but if you’re willing to travel, there is work waiting for you.

Our current situation is no different to other professions like law and pharmacy.

In pharmacy there is plenty of work available – but only if you’ll travel to the regions. Metro roles are hard to come by.

In law, we recently had the head of human resources with one of the top tier law firms talk about their experiences. They had advertised eight positions for new graduate lawyers and received over 500 applications. You weren’t even able to apply if you hadn’t finished within the top 10% of graduates!

Competition for work isn’t new – it’s just pretty new for us. But if you are good at what you do and you’re willing to be a bit flexible with where you take your first role, the prospects in optometry are still strong. And of course, as the general economy improves (which it will do over time), jobs in metro areas will increase – I just can’t tell you when that will happen.

Which brings us to looking ahead to 2026.

I have no particular expertise in labour market or economic forecasting, so I went looking for insights from people who do.

The Commonwealth Bank suggests, “Despite persistent global headwinds – including trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty – the domestic economy is expected to remain resilient, buoyed by falling interest rates, stabilising inflation, and a rebound in household spending.”

And Deloitte Access Economics opines, “An important combination of lower inflation, declining interest rates, rising real wages, solid government spending growth, and a robust labour market is expected to provide the basis for a gradual improvement in domestic economic fortunes in the near term.”

The overall sentiment is positive, although the bounce will still take a little while to realise. But if you’re looking for a stable role, you really can’t go past health care in general.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT, PERHAPS?

I know that clinical optometry is where most graduates will head, at least initially, but once you’ve consolidated your skills, have you thought about using those skills outside the ‘normal’ optometric orbit?

In the NSW/ACT office we’ve recently been doing some work with a few members who want to head off on a tangent and try something away from the consulting room.

The first mental barrier they face is “but I’m an optometrist, what else can I do?”.

The answer is, quite a lot actually.

As science and health graduates, optometrists bring a lot of highly transferrable skills to the workplace:

• Intelligence,

• Problem solving,

• Scientific rigour,

• Research skills,

• Analytical writing skills, and many more.

Skills like this can transfer into a wide variety of roles and we’re more than happy to help you explore what might be on offer.

In two recent cases, we assisted a young colleague who is taking up a business development role in a leading healthcare company. In another, we put a colleague in touch with one of the heads of the big business chambers in New South Wales, to help them explore where their skills might lead them. And that outcome looks really promising.

And so, to wrap up 2025, my personal thanks to all the members who continue to support us so strongly; we’re always looking at ways to make your membership more valuable and better value, and we won’t give up on that quest any time soon.

My best wishes to you all and remember that the Association offices will still be contactable right across the Christmas/New Year period – just call us on (02) 9712 2199 and we’ll be there to help as and when you need us.

Andrew McKinnon is the Chief Executive Officer of Optometry Australia New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.