The live graph represents the percentage of the Australian workforce employed in five different industries – services, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, mining during the period from 19620 to 2012.
Overall, the proportion of workers employed in the service sector increased significantly, making it the largest employment sector by the end of the period. In contrast, the percentages of workers employed in agriculture, construction and mining remained relatively at low level throughout of the period. Additionally, the proportion of workers in manufacturing followed a downward trend.
To begin with, the proportion of the workers employed in service sector stood at more than 50%, at the beginning of the period. Consequently, the percentage of workers in service sector increased by approximately to 5 percentage point in each year and in 2012 the figure for this sector reached its peak at 80%. In contrast, percentages of workers employed in agriculture, construction and mining saw a dramatic decrease. At the beginning of the period, figures for workers in construction and mining sectors started at 10% and just above 10%, which was higher in comparison with the percentage of workers in mining sector which started and ended at a relatively low level. Furthermore the proportion of workers in agriculture sector steadily declined to 0% by 2012. While the rate for employment in construction sector experienced some fluctuations and ended at 10%.
Regarding the proportion of workers in the sector manufacturing, its figure stood approximately at 25%. Consequently, the figure for workers in manufacturing gradually decreased to the same percentage as that for workers in construction sector.
