WHO’S HIRING?
Jobs growth, year to May
Health and Social Care +57,200
Education and Training +44,400
Retail Trade +44,000
Financial and Insurance +38,100
Mining industry +35,200
Administration and Support +27,900
Construction +25,800
Arts and Recreation +23,600
Accommodation and Catering +21,600
Public Administration and Safety +13,100
Electricity, Gas Water +8,700
Rent and Real Estate +8,000
Professional and Scientific Services +7,600
WHO’S FIRING?
Jobs lost, year to May
Media and Information Technology -4,000
Manufacturing industry -5,000
Wholesale Trade -14,400
Transport, Postal and Warehousing -17,600
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing -45,100
Seasonally adjusted ABS 6291.0.55.003
Health and aged care employers are dominating job creation, relegating the mining industry to fifth place.
Detailed employment figures released by the Bureau of Statistics show the heath and social assistance sector took on an extra 57,200 workers in the year to May followed by education and training with 44,400 and retail with 44,000.
In forth place was a resurgent finance sector which more than took back all of the workers it lost during the financial crisis, boosting employment by 38,100 to push the industry to an all-time high.
The mining industry took on an extra 35,200 workers. Although dwarfed by the performance of the service industries, as a proportion of the workers already employed the growth amounted to an extraordinary 19 per cent.
Mining now employs 217,100 Australians, up from 181,800 a year ago.
“When it comes to growth the mining sector stands head and shoulders above the rest,” said CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian. “In fact the strength in mining employment goes a long way in explaining the disparity in employment growth across the states.”
Queensland took on 19,000 of the new mining workers, New South Wales 9000 and Western Australia 7300... NSW boosted employment by 101,900, Victoria 83,300, Western Australia 34,900, Queensland 24,200 and South Australia 12,900. Tasmania lost 200 jobs.
Health and social assistance is now clearly Australia’s biggest employing sector, having overtaken retail in February 2010. Construction has replaced manufacturing in third place taking on an extra 25,800 workers over the past year.
Manufacturing has lost 5000 jobs in the past year and 102,000 over the three years that encompassed the financial crisis.
The Westpac Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry June quarter survey of industrial trends released yesterday (THURS) showed more manufacturers expected to lose staff than hire in the three months ahead, a turnaround from the March quarter survey when more expected to hire than let go of staff.
ACCI chief economist Greg Evans blamed the high dollar saying manufacturers were unable
to recover cost increases by raising prices.
A further interest rate rise make things even harder.
"We understand that the job of the Reserve Bank is clearly to deal with inflationary pressures," he said. "But our message is that a pre-emptive rate increase could severely damage those parts of the economy outside the mining sector."
Other industries to contract over the year include wholesale trade, losing 14,400 workers, the transport, postal and warehousing sector, losing 17,600 and agriculture which lost 45,100.
In the past three months 10 of the 19 sectors identified by the Bureau of Statistics shed workers as jobs growth slowed.
Employment growth slowed to a trend rate of 1800 per month in May, way below the pace of 26,000 per month twelve months earlier.
Male employment is now falling at the trend rate of 4200 per month while female employment continues to climb at a trend rate of 2400. All of the growth of female employment is in part-time jobs with full-time female and male employment falling.
Increased female and part-time employment has cut average hours worked to 33.7 per week, around two hours less than a decade ago.
Published in today's SMH and Age
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