Healthcare employment soars
Employment increased by +114,000 over the 3 months to May, driven by a surge in professional, trade, and services roles.
Over the past year healthcare employment has soared +179,000 higher to 2.02 million, accounting for almost 15 per cent of jobs.
There has also been strong growth in professional, scientific, and tech roles over recent years, with total employment rising from 1 million to 1.3 million over the past five years.
Mining employment also increased +24,000 to 303,000, and is now higher than the peak of the resources investment boom years.
On the other hand, manufacturing employment slumped -80,000 lower over the year, to a fresh multi-decade low of only 831,000 (down from 1.2 million in the late 1980s).
Construction employment remains some way below its 2018 peak, but overall has held up a lot better than I expected at that time (in part thanks to the successful HomeBuilder and renovation stimulus packages).
There will be all the usual carping about 'the wrong type of jobs' but on the volume measures of under-employment and under-utilisation the labour market is as tight as we've seen it.
After an alarming spike around May 2020, the economy has come storming back!
As a result of this, one third of businesses are reportedly struggling to find staff, and wages and hourly rates of pay are now finally on the rise, after a decade of underwhelming pay increases.
