4.9% ▼ -16.8%
- 2011: 5.9%
- 2016: 6.3%
- 2021: 4.9%
Unemployed people as a share of the labour force (aged 15+).
New South Wales · State / Territory
Jobs & Industry in New South Wales
Work across the area — who is in the labour force, in which industries and jobs.
Health care and social assistance is the biggest employer in New South Wales, with 14.4% of the workforce in this field. The state has a lower proportion of people working or looking for work than most other Australian states, and full-time employment has fallen since 2011.
Labour force
Employment, participation and unemployment.
About 58.7% of adults are working or looking for work, which is a little below the national figure of 61.1%. Full-time employment fell by 6 percentage points since 2011 to reach 58.0%, while the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.9%.
58.7% ▼ -1.7%
- 2011: 59.7%
- 2016: 59.2%
- 2021: 58.7%
Share of people aged 15+ who are in the labour force.
58.0% ▼ -9.4%
- 2011: 64.0%
- 2016: 63.1%
- 2021: 58.0%
Share of employed people who worked full-time.
Industries
The industries that employ local workers.
Health care and social assistance is the most common industry at 14.4%, followed by retail trade at 9.0% and professional and technical services at 8.9%. Other major sectors include education and training at 8.7% and construction at 8.6%.
Occupations
The kinds of jobs people do.
Professional roles are the most common occupation for 25.8% of workers, followed by managers at 14.6% and clerical and administrative staff at 13.0%. Technicians and trades make up 11.9% of the workforce, while community and personal service roles account for 10.6%.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for New South Wales
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Jobs & Industry in New South Wales [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ste/1/new-south-wales/topic/employment