Australia has enjoyed sustained economic growth over recent decades, which has led to a number of important changes in the Australian labour market. Fundamental changes in industry structure and labour force participation, combined with fluctuations in the business cycle have created a workforce that is very different to the one that existed three decades ago. In the last 20 years real GDP has doubled and the number of people in employment has increased more than 50 per cent, while the nominal value of household wealth in Australia has more than quadrupled. However, with this strong growth has come some challenges in ensuring that the supply of skills meets employers’ needs.
The last two decades have also been marked by a significant shift towards service based industries. In particular, industries such as Health Care and Social Assistance, Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and Education and Training have all recorded strong increases in employment. By contrast, employment in primary industries such as Manufacturing and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing has declined significantly.
For more information, please download The Australian Labour Market Report.
For a copy of all the data on this economy available through the Skills Mapping Tool, along with any additional relevant data provided, please download the Australian Skills Mapping Tool data (excel) 
Key Statistics
Below are some key statistics for the economy, for more data use the Skills Mapping tool or download the Skills Mapping Tool data file on this page.
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Working age population (aged 15-64): 16,137,000.00 GDP per person employed ($USD): $90,457.26 -
Employment rate (aged 15-64): 73.0 Lower secondary education completion rate (aged 15-64): 90.4 -
Unemployment rate (aged 15-64): 5.8 Tertiary education attainment rate (aged 15-64): 40.3