Growth in jobs lifted by services
ALMOST four in five workers are now employed providing a service to others as the sector increases its dominance in the national economy.
Employment Department data shows 78 per cent of workers are now employed in the services sector, up from 70 per cent in 1990.
Fifty years ago, in 1966, only 54 per cent of workers were employed in the services sector, while in 1910 it was about 40 per cent.
Jobs have come at the expense of manufacturing, which in the past 25 years has slipped from being the second-biggest employing industry – 14 per cent of all workers – to become third at 7 per cent.
Employment in construction has increased from 7 per cent to 9 per cent since 1990 to be the third largest employing industry.
Today, more people are employed as domestic and commercial cleaners (168,900) than farmers (142,200), while sales workers (1.13 million) this year outnumber labourers (1.12 million) for the first time.
The Australia Institute principal adviser Mark Ogge said many people associated service jobs with roles such as barista and others requiring a low level of qualifications to be employed.
Mr Ogge said the sector encompassed highly skilled jobs in industries such as healthcare and social assistance, education, training, professional services, retail and hospitality.
“We live in a modern, service-based economy,” he said.
“The projections for jobs growth show the service sector is going to be most of all the jobs growth – mining will shrink, manufacturing will stay about the same, construction might grow a bit.”
The latest report by Hudson Recruitment Australia and New Zealand has found that employers in the technology, professional services, not-forprofit and financial services are most likely to be hiring new professional staff this year.
Resources and mining employers are the least likely to put on new staff by Christmas.
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