The table shows the proportion of workers employed in six sectors in Australia in the years 1989 and 2009.
Overall, the figures for manufacturing and retail experienced a decline, while that of remaining sectors showed an upward trend.
In 1989, 15% and 11.8% people worked in manufacturing and retail industries, respectively. Over the following two decades, the former’s rate dropped significantly to 9.8% in 2009. Meanwhile, there was a slight decrease to 10.1% in retail industry.
By contrast, other sectors exhibited an increase. Healthcare industry started the period as the third employee with 9.6%, after which this numbers grew gradually to 11.3%. As a result this sector surpassed manufacturing and retail industries in terms of percentage of workers. Turning to construction and Education, they increased steadily from 7.6% and 6.8% in 1989 to 8.3% and 7.5% in 2009, respectively. Although tourism sector saw consistent growth, increasing from 5.5% to 7.3%, it remained as the lowest job employee over the two decades.
