Australia is addicted to government-funded jobs

Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors, recently published the following chart showing the outsized contribution of the non-market sector (i.e., public services, healthcare & social assistance, and education) to overall job growth.

Of the 926,425 jobs created between Q1 2023 and Q3 2025, 637,273 (69%) were in the non-market sector that is primarily government funded.

This was despite the non-market sector comprising only 31.5% of total Australian jobs, according to analysis from CBA:

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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.