The graph illustrates the Australian workforce data in five industries from 1962 to 2012.
Overall, the Australian workforce in services constituted the largest percentage; however, the employment rate in mining was the lowest of all time. Moreover, the employment rates in fields of mining and construction did not experience as many significant changes as others.
In 1962, the percentage of Australian service employment was over 50%, nearly a half more than that of manufacturing, which was the second largest. The proportions of Australian agriculture and construction workforce both started with nearly 10%, but still higher than that of people working in the mining industry, which took up the lowest.3
After 1962, the proportion of Australian people in the service industry rose steadily before fluctuating slightly from 1982 to near 2012. In 2012, it peaked at a rate of closely 80%, surpassing other industries with a huge gap. Throughout 3 decades, the Australian workforce in construction and mining percentages saw slight fluctuations, but still accounted for approximately 8 times less than that of the highest in 2012. Moreover, the percentage of manufacturing stabilized at 25% for 10 years before falling dramatically by half from 1972 to 2012, whereas that of agriculture halved after 30 years.