Australia’s employment landscape closed out 2019 strongly, with over half of our population employed in either full-time or part-time roles.
The Government monthly leading indicator of Employment rose for the second consecutive month in December 2019, after seventeen consecutive monthly falls. Employment levels increased by 254,900 (or 2%) over the year.
Our industry structure continues to shift, with service-based industries continuing to grow at steady rates.
‘The importance of the services sector to the economy has expanded rapidly in recent years, offsetting the falls in other industries. Today, more than three in every four Australian workers are employed in a service industry.’
According to the 2019 Australian Jobs report, around 50% of Australian workers are employed in one of these industries (construction being the only one not considered as a service-based industry):
- Health Care and Social Assistance (1,685,100);
- Retail Trade; Professional (1,272,300);
- Construction (1,166,900);
- Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (1,082,100), and;
- Education and Training (1,035,400).
Our Programmed Professionals teams support numerous service-based industries and in recent years, have watched the growing demand for people in these fields, especially in Professional, Scientific and Technical services.
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employs over 1.1M people, accounting for 9.0 per cent of the total workforce. Over the past five years, employment in the industry has increased by 24.3 per cent. It is a large and diverse industry, including activities such as legal and accounting, ICT and engineering services.
According to The Australian Government of Jobs and Small Business the top three hiring occupations in Professional, Scientific and Technical Services are:
- Accountants
- Software and Applications Programmers
- Solicitors
- Graphic and Web designers, and Illustrators
- Management and Organisation Analysts
The Australian Industry Group (AiGroup) reported that the service sector had a strong 2019, only showing some decline in December as businesses approached the festive season. The Performance of Services Index (PCI) for December report registered the industry at 48.7 points (index readings above 50 points indicate industry activity is expanding, below 50 indicates that it is contracting).
Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said “the business and property services, and the health and community services sectors both fell, offsetting a strong expansion in finance and insurance and more mild growth in the retail trade and hospitality and personal, recreation and other services sectors. Logistics services were broadly stable in December.”
Many people in this industry play a key role in supporting other industries, such as Mining, Resources and Energy. For example, the top Professional, Scientific and Technical roles we currently hire for the Mining industry include:
- Bid Managers
- Geotechnical Engineers
- Environmental Practitioners and Advisors
- Project Managers
- Sales, Maintenance, Mining and Project Engineers
As Australia’s leading Staffing and Maintenance organisation we’re proudly providing staffing, professional, technical, training and maintenance services across Australia and New Zealand with more than 20,000 employees supporting industry every day.
If you need exceptional professionals for any roles, contact us today.
