HANS KUNNEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ST.GEORGE BANK
there are still many highly successful successful manufacturing businesses in Australia. The services sector, in particular, has been growing
in importance in Australia for decades. It is where the bulk of new jobs are being created. Advances in technology have changed the shape of our economy. The mobile phone, email, ever-more powerful personal computers, digital TV and digital radio, social media, online forms, Google Maps and so much more are changing the way we work, think, interact, buy and sell. To some businesses, this is a threat but to many others, it is opening up exciting new opportunities. The bottom line is that jobs are being created. We
TWENTY YEARS AGO, WHO WOULD HAVE APPL IED FOR A JOB AS A SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYST, A DIGITAL RADIO TECHNICIAN OR A GAMMA RADIOMETRIC SOI L TESTER?
need to support those in transition and prepare the current generation of students for a world different from our own. Twenty years ago, who would have applied for a job as a social media analyst, a digital radio technician or a gamma radiometric soil tester?
The resources boom—is it over? I doubt it, but it is changing shape. The past few years have seen a boom in the construction of
mines, ports, pipelines and storage facilities. Over the same timeframe, output from mines around the globe has increased. Commodity prices appear to have peaked, which
means some proposed new mines will be cancelled or delayed. The construction boom in the resources sector may well end in the next few years but it will come just as a production boom comes on line. Projects constructed 'today' will start producing 'tomorrow', lifting Australia's exports, while imports of capital equipment used in resource project construction will decline. Who will buy the output of our mines? The prime
candidates are the growing markets of Asia. Despite a slowdown, the Chinese economy is still expanding in excess of six per cent a year. It is still witnessing rapid rates of urbanisation and seeing millions of people being lifted out of poverty. Yes, some parts of coastal China occasionally appear overdeveloped, but China has large underdeveloped interior regions that are now demanding similar living standards to those seen in the coastal regions. Growth in China
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