The death of Australian manufacturing

Following on from my earlier post summarising the latest quarterly employment report from the ABS, below are some charts illustrating the dire situation facing Australia’s manufacturing industry.

First, total employment in manufacturing fell to the second lowest level ever in August, with only 919,100 Australians employed in the industry – just a whisker above the all-time low 916,900 jobs recorded in May 2013. Moreover, the share of total employment in manufacturing fell to an all-time low of just 7.9% – less than half the 16.8% of total employment in manufacturing in November 1984 (see next chart).

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.