Fifteen things about the Australian job market you probably didn’t know: 2010 update

In InSight Issue 82 (20 May, 2009), I wrote about the various interesting labour market facts that I had discovered in reading the DEEWR publication, Australian Jobs 2008  .  
 
Earlier this month, the most recent edition, Australian Jobs 2010   was released, so I thought it was opportune to provide an updated list of various facts that recruiters might be interested in. All figures quoted are as at February 2010 unless otherwise stated.  

1. In the past 5 years the fastest % state or territory employment growth   was recorded in the NT (24.6%), followed by WA (15.8%), then Qld (13.8%).    
2. Tasmania has the oldest  workforce with 43% of workers aged 45 or older. Next is SA (41%) then NSW (39%).    
3. Over the past 5 years the largest employment growth   (by raw numbers) was in Health Care and Social Assistance (up by 210,300), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (189,500), Education and Training (136,000), Construction (135,800) and Mining (64,900).    
4. The three largest employers of part-time   workers, by sector, were Accommodation and Food Services   (58% of the total workforce working part-time), Retail Trade   (48%) and Arts & Recreational Services   (45%).    
5. The most female-dominated   sectors were Health Care & Social Assistance   (79% of the workforce are female), Education   (69%), Accommodation & Food Services   (56%) and Retail Trade   (56%).    
6. By industry, the most new jobs   in the next 5 years  are projected to be created in Health Care & Social Assistance   (211,500), Construction  (120,100) and Education and Training   (119,000).    
7. Mining   gains plenty of publicity due to the wages, conditions and skills shortages but it only employs 2% of Australia’s workforce   (172,500 people), which has it 17th out of 19 sectors in terms of workforce size. However in terms of projected percentage employment growth over the next five years, Mining (17.5%) ranks second to Health Care & Social Assistance (17.6%).    
8. Employment declined   in four industries over the past five years. These industries being Manufacturing   (down by 47,400), Information Media and Telecommunications  (25,800), Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing   (3,500) and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services   (1,200).    
9. In the next five years  the Top 10 growth occupations   are predicted to be Registered Nurses (35,800), Accountants (30,800), Aged and Disabled Carers (29,600), Sales Assistants, General (29,400), Child Carers (25,300), Retail Managers (25,000), Nursing Support and Personal Care Workers (23,100), Accounting Clerks (20,500), Electricians (20,500) and Waiters (20,400).    
10. At the more disaggregated industry level, the top 6 industry subdivisions  projected to  provide the most new jobs   in the next 5 years are expected to be Hospitals (70,500), School Education (65,300), Cafés, Restaurants and Takeaway Food Services (64,700), Supermarket and Grocery Stores (46,400), Building Installation Services (44,300) and Residential Care Services (38,000).    
11. Apprentices in training   has increased only 6% (400,000 to 425,00) in the past five years. This is half the rate of increase in tertiary study enrolments over the same period (11.7%).    
12. In the 10 years between 1998 and 2008 the number of students enrolled in tertiary study  has increased 37% from 675,000 to 925,000. The gender difference   in the student population is almost unchanged   with female enrolments increasing slightly from 54.3% in 1998 to 55.6% in 2008. Non-Australian residents comprise 16.5% of the tertiary student population.    
13. Mature age apprentices-in-training   have shown a dramatic increase in numbers between 1999 (80,000 aged 25 and over) and 2009 (182,000 aged 25 or over). These mature age apprentices represented 55.8% of all apprentices-in-training in 2009, up from 35.5% in 1999.    
14. By qualification level  , no Post-School qualification is held by 38.6% of the total workforce, followed by Bachelor Degree (18.6%), Certificate III/IV (18.4%), Advanced Diploma/Diploma (9.6%), Post Graduate Degree (4.7%), Certificate I/II (4.3%), Graduate Diploma/Cert (2.9%) and Certificate Undefined (1.6%). In the past ten years the proportion of the workforce holding any form of post-school qualification   has grown from 51% to 61%.    
15. In 2009, the median annual starting salary for all Bachelor degree graduates   aged less than 25 years and in their first full-time job in Australia was $48,000, up by $3,000 from 2008. The five highest starting salaries were for Dentistry ($70,000), Optometry ($64,500), Engineering ($57,500), Earth Sciences ($54,000) and Medicine ($54,000).

Oh, and in case you go looking for any mention of our profession in Australian Jobs 2010, don’t bother. Apparently recruiters aren’t significant enough to have their own job category in the 9 pages devoted to rating the ‘future prospects’ of hundreds of individual occupation job categories.  
 
Nurserypersons, Boat Builders, Caravan Park Managers, Stock & Station Agents, Indigenous Health Workers and Upholsterers, all manage to claim their own category but Recruiters, along with Sex Workers are left to lobby for their own stand-alone category in the next edition of Australian Jobs.  
 
We can only hope.