Regional Tasmania’s heavy reliance on private sector business has been underlined by new figures.
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They also show the “northern half” does relatively well in public sector-dominated health and education jobs.
The combined North-West, North and West Coast had a significantly bigger proportions of jobs in private sector industries than the public service-heavy South, according to Department of Employment figures for May.
According to the department, the northern half had:
- 6.6 per cent of its jobs in agriculture, forestry and fishing, compared to 4.3 per cent for the South;
- 8.8 per cent of its jobs in manufacturing (5.9 per cent in the South);
- 2.1 per cent of its jobs in mining (0.4 per cent);
- 3 per cent of its jobs in wholesale trade (2.3 per cent);
- 11.2 per cent of its jobs in retail (10.5 per cent); and
- 1.6 per cent of its jobs in rental, hiring and real estate services (1.2 per cent).
The northern half also had higher proportions than the South of healthcare and social assistance workers (15 per cent to 13.6 per cent) and education and training workers (8.4 per cent to 8.2 per cent).
The South was not completely lacking in relative private sector strength
It had bigger proportions of construction jobs (9.2 per cent to the northern half’s 8.9 per cent), accommodation and food services jobs (8.7 per cent to 8.3 per cent), financial and insurance services jobs (2.6 per cent to 1.9 per cent) and information media and telecommunications jobs (2 per cent to 1 per cent).
Professional, scientific and technical services jobs, which have significant private and public sector involvement, were also a win for the South (6 per cent of jobs compared to the northern half’s 4.1 per cent).
Public sector-dominated public administration and safety provided 9.5 per cent of jobs in the South and just 5.1 per cent in the northern half.
The jobs make-up and level of reliance on trade-exposed industries would help explain why the North-West, North and West tend to fare badly in economic downturns.
In his 2016 Tasmania Report, prominent Tasmanian-based economist Saul Eslake said: “ ... the decline in full-time employment in Tasmania since the global financial crisis has been concentrated in manufacturing in particular and, to a lesser extent, in agriculture, forestry and fishing, wholesaling and retailing.”
“These losses have been partly offset by increases in full-time employment in healthcare and social assistance, construction, professional and technical services, and transport, postal and warehousing services.”
