Filled jobs in the Professional, scientific and technical services industry increased by 7.1 per cent over the year to December 2019, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said “Filled jobs in Professional, scientific and technical services grew by 4.0 per cent in December quarter 2019, considerably faster than Health care and social assistance - the other fast growing, large employing industry - which grew by 2.7 per cent. It remained the third largest employing industry, behind Health care and social assistance and Retail trade”.
The increase in filled jobs in Professional, scientific and technical services was well above the general increase across the economy, with total filled jobs growing by 0.9 per cent in the quarter, and 1.9 per cent over the year.
Of the increase in jobs worked in the December quarter 2019, around 3 in 4 (76%) were jobs worked by someone as their main job, with the remainder being secondary jobs (24%). The number of multiple job holders in Australia (people who worked multiple jobs at the same time) decreased by 1.1 per cent in the quarter, with the multiple job holding rate also decreasing slightly, down to 5.9 per cent of all employed people.
The number of job vacancies increased over the quarter, the first quarterly increase since March 2019. The measure of job vacancies as a proportion of total jobs remained steady at 1.6 per cent.
“Filled jobs in the private sector increased by 2.0 per cent over the past year, while the number of filled jobs in the public sector increased by 0.9 per cent, “Mr Hockman said. “Around 93 per cent of the jobs growth over 2019 was in the private sector.”
The Labour Account is the best source of headline information on employment by industry and sector, and includes data back to September 1994.
Further details can be found in Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat. no. 6150.0.55.003). These are available for free download from www.abs.gov.au.