Snapshot of employment by industry, 2017

Posted 26/04/2017 by Penny Vandenbroek

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases quarterly estimates of employed people by industry (in their main job, where a person holds more than one job) in the publication Labour Force, detailed, quarterly, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003. Data is available since November 1984, with the most recent data being February 2017. The next available data (May 2017) will be released on 22 June 2017.

Estimates of employment by industry division are available in trend, seasonally adjusted and original series. For finer level detail on industry of employment (e.g. sub-division), the ABS releases original (unadjusted) estimates. Data is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0), cat. no. 1292.0 (see Chapter 8 – The detailed classification).

Given the current interest in employment by industry, two tables have been compiled using quarterly estimates from 2016 and 2017. Table 1 presents estimates from the trend series and Table 2 presents an average of quarterly estimates from the original series by sex. To enable comparisons, estimates for each industry division and the total number of employed are included. The estimates represent national figures. Estimates are also available by state/territory, greater capital city/balance of state and labour market region (SA4). For different time periods, or for other employment characteristics, refer to the quarterly release (via the ‘Downloads’ tab). For additional information on this theme, refer to the Parliamentary Library publication, Employment by industry statistics: a quick guide.

1. Snapshot of employed people by industry - Feb 2016 and Feb 2017(quarterly, trend)

	Employed people			Proportion of total employed
	Feb-16	Feb-17	Change in employed Feb-16 to Feb-17	Feb-16	Feb-17
Industry of employment (Division)(a)	('000)	('000)	(%)	(%)	(%)
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	321.8	293.1	-8.9	2.7	2.4
Mining	225.9	240.8	6.6	1.9	2.0
Manufacturing	874.7	914.6	4.6	7.3	7.6
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	137.7	132.5	-3.8	1.2	1.1
Construction	1,062.2	1,098.5	3.4	8.9	9.1
Wholesale Trade	373.9	376.4	0.7	3.1	3.1
Retail Trade	1,273.3	1,214.0	-4.7	10.7	10.1
Accommodation and Food Services	829.4	849.6	2.4	7.0	7.1
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	625.3	596.7	-4.6	5.3	5.0
Information Media and Telecommunications	206.4	206.2	-0.1	1.7	1.7
Financial and Insurance Services	437.1	433.6	-0.8	3.7	3.6
Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services	219.4	214.2	-2.4	1.8	1.8
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	1,000.6	1,021.7	2.1	8.4	8.5
Administrative and Support Services	420.0	435.3	3.7	3.5	3.6
Public Administration and Safety	747.8	828.5	10.8	6.3	6.9
Education and Training	927.5	964.1	3.9	7.8	8.0
Health Care and Social Assistance	1,532.1	1,498.2	-2.2	12.9	12.4
Arts and Recreation Services	230.9	209.0	-9.5	1.9	1.7
Other Services	470.2	485.8	3.3	4.0	4.0
Total employed	11,901.2	12,048.1	1.2	100.0	100.0

2. Snapshot of industry employment by sex - Feb 2017 (average of 4 qtrs ending, original)

	Employed people			Proportion of employed
	Men	Women	Persons	Men	Women	Persons
Industry of employment (Division)(a)	('000)	('000)	('000)	(%)	(%)	(%)
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	217.7	92.1	309.8	3.4	1.7	2.6
Mining	194.1	34.4	228.5	3.0	0.6	1.9
Manufacturing	648.0	252.5	900.4	10.1	4.5	7.5
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	104.1	32.0	136.2	1.6	0.6	1.1
Construction	945.3	129.0	1,074.3	14.7	2.3	9.0
Wholesale Trade	252.4	119.6	372.0	3.9	2.2	3.1
Retail Trade	548.0	680.0	1,228.0	8.5	12.2	10.3
Accommodation and Food Services	391.4	458.5	849.9	6.1	8.2	7.1
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	474.6	136.4	611.0	7.4	2.5	5.1
Information Media and Telecommunications	127.7	76.8	204.5	2.0	1.4	1.7
Financial and Insurance Services	215.0	216.9	431.9	3.3	3.9	3.6
Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services	100.4	108.7	209.1	1.6	2.0	1.7
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services	599.4	409.8	1,009.2	9.3	7.4	8.4
Administrative and Support Services	213.8	221.2	435.0	3.3	4.0	3.6
Public Administration and Safety	392.8	396.7	789.5	6.1	7.1	6.6
Education and Training	279.5	677.9	957.3	4.4	12.2	8.0
Health Care and Social Assistance	335.2	1,190.7	1,525.9	5.2	21.4	12.7
Arts and Recreation Services	114.1	105.8	219.9	1.8	1.9	1.8
Other Services	263.8	218.9	482.7	4.1	3.9	4.0
Total employed	6,417.3	5,558.0	11,975.3	100.0	100.0	100.0