Analysis Piece

In the current gloom brought about by a sluggish stock market and the persistence of unemployment, IBISWorld is giving cause for optimism.

In the 12 months ended March 2016, Australia created 335,100 jobs, three-and-a-half times more jobs than the 95,500 it lost.

The sectors which experienced the greatest losses over the last five years were, unsurprisingly, manufacturing (47.7 per cent) and wholesale (44.4 per cent). The growth has been in professional and technical services (15.6 per cent), retail (7.9 per cent), transport (6.2 per cent), and hospitality (5.7 per cent).

The growth in hospitality naturally implies growth for food growers and suppliers.

Our economy may be the fastest growing in the world currently, but the rate of 2.7 per cent per annum in the year to March 2016 and for the past five years is markedly slower than the 3.2 per cent per annum growth we experienced over the past 50 years.

As Phil Ruthven, founder of IBISWorld, reminds us, the figures must be examined in context.

Australia are no longer part of the “developed world” of the EU and America, so it is of small comfort that Australia can boast faster growth than them.

Asia as a whole is growing three time faster than the EU and America and we should look there for our benchmark.

Fortunately, our economy is up-to-date in terms of the mix of industries and the growth in those industries overall is sufficient to propel our economy forward. But if we wish to maintain that momentum and even boost it further we urgently require labour market and taxation reforms, not to mention parliamentary reform and a major boost to our broadband speed.

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