Yesterday the ABS released its quarterly detailed Labour Force report which gives us chance to peer into the sectoral trends of employment. A couple of standout results included:
- Mining adding 25.5k jobs in the quarter and 58k over the year. Now at 275k total.
- Education and training was up 30k in the quarter but only 22k on the year at 899k.
- Health care was up 7k on the quarter but 63k over the year to 1357k.
- Professional and scientific services was up 42k in the quarter and 77k in the year to 930k.
- Construction was down 23k in the quarter and is down 98k in the year.
- Manufacturing fell 18k in the quarter and is down 23k on the year at 953k.
- Austerity is biting with the public sector down 37k in the quarter but only 11k on the year at 705k.
- Retail was up 4k in the quarter but down 23k on the year to 1211k.
So, lot’s of structural adjustment there in which we are digging more dirt and ageing like buggery, as well as consulting more lawyers. If you’re a blue collar worker in the city then life probably feels pretty insecure. Especially if your wife works part time at DJs. If you’re happy to leave her to the milkman and go underground then everything’s all right. Dutch disease is hitting two of the three major tradeable sectors in manufacturing and tourism but not discernibly so in education.
Here’s the big chart:
Which tells us nothing about underemployment, which is where I suspect a lot of labour market pain is being hidden. The ABS did produce a new series on underemployment by sector, clearly conscious of this very fact. But because it has no time series, we can’t see yet what it means. Still, here are two charts which high levels of underemployment in the sectors under pressure. But, these are also sectors where there is always a high degree of casualisation so go figure.
By numbers:
And percent:
Hope that helps!
