Manufacturing leads Australian employment growth

This morning the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its detailed Labour Force data for August. The bureau produces these data on a quarterly basis, which provide useful information to complement the monthly surveys. 

Of particular interest is the granular breakdown of employment growth across the 19 industries the ABS measures in the Australian economy. 

According to August's data, total employment increased by 106,600 in the 3 months to August and by 306,600 over the past year. The chart, below, shows the breakdown across the industries. 

Contributing most to new employment over the past year has been manufacturing, which accounted for 86,400 of the total increase of 306,600. Based on these data, manufacturing is the 6th largest employer in Australia, accounting for 7.7% of the workforce.

Australia's largest employer is the healthcare industry, which saw a surge in employment growth from mid-2017 into early-2018 of 154,000. Employment growth has slowed since then and increased by only 5,600 over the year to August.

Education, Australia's 4th largest employer, is another industry where employment has eased after a sharp increase over much of the past couple of years.

Construction employment totaled 30,000 over the past year, well down from the peak of 104,000 in the 12 months to August 2017. 

An encouraging aspect is a pick-up in professional services employment, which increased by 65,000 over the past year. That figure is a vast improvement from the same point last year where employment had contracted by 43,000.