12 December 2018

MEDIA RELEASE Embargoed 11:30am (AEDT)

Over the past five years health care and social assistance was the fastest growing industry, and remained the largest contributor to the number of jobs in the Australian economy according to new annual data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. Of the 13.6 million employed people in Australia, 12.6 per cent work in the health care and social assistance industry.

“The new data contains information for 2017-18 and provides the best source of information on the number of jobs over the past 8 years for 80 different industries,” said Bruce Hockman, Chief Economist at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

“It shows filled jobs in Australia grew by 3.3 per cent, or 442,700, in 2017-18."

“The largest contributor to this increase was health care and social assistance filled jobs, which rose by 4.7 per cent. 2017-18 was the eighth straight year of jobs growth in this industry.”

At the same time, manufacturing filled jobs saw a 1.2 per cent increase. This was mostly due to an increase of 19,300 fabricated metal product manufacturing filled jobs, and 8,700 non-metallic mineral product manufacturing filled jobs.

These increases were offset by food product manufacturing filled jobs, which decreased by 5,900, and printing (including the reproduction of recorded media) filled jobs, which decreased by 7,900.



Further details on the data can be found in - Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates, September 2018. These are available for free download from www.abs.gov.au

Media note:

• The Australian Labour Account provides a comprehensive picture of the labour market by complementing other ABS measures. It allows the analysis of both main and secondary jobs providing a rich picture of the dynamics of the labour market.
• The Australian Labour Account complements other ABS measures to build a more comprehensive picture of the labour market. Labour Account data provides the number of filled jobs at a point-in-time each quarter, while the Jobs in Australia data provides insights into all jobs held throughout the year, and Labour Force Survey data measures the number of people employed each month
• When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
• For media requests and interviews, contact the ABS Media team at media@abs.gov.au or on 1300 175 070 (8.30 am - 5pm Mon-Fri).
• A glossary of terms used in this media releases is available with the publication.

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