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 2018. The next available data (May 2018) will be released on 21 June 2018.

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 ongoing interest in employment by industry, two tables published in a 2017 Flagpost have been updated using quarterly estimates from 2017 and 2018. 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 people 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. Employed people by industry—Feb 2017 and Feb 2018 (quarterly, trend)

Source: ABS, Labour force, detailed, quarterly, Feb 2018, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003 (Table 04: trend)

Note: some of the estimates shown for Feb 2017 differ to those previously published due to the ABS undertaking a rebenchmarking process. This process involves reviewing the population estimates used to benchmark the Labour Force Survey, and in some cases results in minor revisions to the series of estimates.

2. Share of industry employment by sex—Feb 2018 (average 4 qtrs ending, original)

Source: ABS, Labour force, detailed, quarterly, Feb 2018, cat. no. 6291.0.55.003 (Data cube EQ03)

Other useful sources

The Department of Jobs and Small Business publishes a selection of ABS industry statistics on their Labour Market Information Portal (LMIP), including regional industry data. The ‘Labour Force Region (SA4)’ provides ABS data and can be selected using an interactive map. Each SA4 profile includes a point in time snapshot of employment by industry, employment status (full-time/part-time) by industry, employment by industry by gender and employment distribution by industry vs state. The profile also includes employment by industry comparisons for five years ago and one year ago (e.g. February 2013, February 2017 and February 2018). The ‘Employment projections’ section of the LMIP provides regional projections (level of employment change) for the five years to May 2022.