The ABS today released employment data by industry classification for the February quarter, and the results are interesting.
Over the February quarter, the economy added 21,500 jobs, with health care (+33,600) and construction (+28,300) the big gainers and retail trade (-44,800) and accommodation (-30,400) the big losers:
In percentage terms, employment across the economy rose by just 0.2%, with the biggest gains recorded in telecommunications (+10.6%) and “other” (+6.0%), with wholesale trade (-6.2%) and accommodation (-4.0%) the biggest losers:
In the year to February 2014, total employment rose by 68,700, with health care (+55,700) and “other” (+46,400) adding the most jobs, and wholesale trade (-80,000) and accommodation (-57,300) losing the most jobs:
In percentage terms, employment rose by just 0.6%, with utilities (+15.3%) and “other” (+10.3%) adding the most jobs, and wholesale trade (-17.6%) and accommodation (-7.3%) losing the most jobs:
Encouragingly, the manufacturing sector experienced some respite from the steady contraction of jobs over recent years, with manufacturing employment rising by 2.8% in the year to February 2014, and the sector’s employment share rising to 8.3% – 0.3% above the all time low reached in the middle of last year:
