The pie charts illustrate what Australian school leavers did immediately after leaving secondary school from 1980 to 2000.
Overall, there were a large number of students who chose to be employed or pursue further education, while the percentage of students who were unemployed was the smallest throughout the period.
In 1980, the percentage of Australians who chose to pursue further education was the largest, accounting for half of the pie chart. The second largest group was those who became employed, which was 10% lower than the choice of higher education. After ten years, the number of people who chose to learn higher education dropped to 38% while the proportion of people becoming employed increased significantly to 50%. In 2000, the percentage of Australians who chose to be employed was 55%, whereas further education still decreased to 37%.
The percentage of people who were unemployed remained relatively stable over the period. In 1980, 10% of school leavers were unemployed. Over 20 years, the number of unemployed fell to 8%, which demonstrates that Australians had many opportunities to find jobs and pursue further education.