Sydney, 5 April 2007: The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) said ABA analysis of labour market statistics shows domestic employment in the finance sector has grown strongly.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that employment in the finance industry was growing at close to record levels – an increase of 24 300 jobs or 12.2%, in the 12 months to February 2007.

This growth has been concentrated in the first half of this financial year (2006-07) and, in this period, the finance industry ranks 4th amongst the 66 industry subdivisions for which ABS release data.
 
Looking back over the years to 1995, only in 2003 has employment in the finance industry been higher.

Domestic jobs growth in the finance industry of 12.2% has outstripped that for the overall labour force growth of 2.9% in the 12 months to February 2007¹.

There is full employment in the financial services industry². Official ABS data shows that in the industry category of ‘finance and insurance’, a category dominated by the banking sector, the unemployment rate is below 2%.


For further information:

Heather Wellard
Director, Public Relations
Phone: 02 8298 0411
Mobile: 0409 830 439

ENDS


¹ABA acknowledges that ABS estimates for industry subdivisions may be affected by higher relative standard errors than estimates for broader aggregates (i.e. total employment), however, the data supports considerable strength in finance sector employment growth.

²Economists would generally consider 1.8% unemployment as full employment as there is always some degree of workers changing jobs even in fully employed labour markets. The national unemployment rate is around 5%.