Jobs of the Future: where employment will grow

Convenience stores will offer the best job growth over the next five years, forecasts IBISWorld. More specialty services – such as ATMs, photocopying, internet access, dry-cleaners, ready-to-eat meals and in-store pharmacies – in convenience stores will drive employment growth of 8.9% to 2012.

The business forecasts have a list of the top 10 industries where employment will grow.

1. Convenience stores (8.9%)
2. Computer & software retailing (5.4%)
3. Residential building construction (5.3%)
4. Services Apartments (4.6%)
5. Takeaway food retailing (4.3%)
6. Accounting services (3.9%)
7. Fire brigade services (3.9%)
8. Health & Community services (3.8%)
9. Newspaper, book & stationary retailing (3.4%)
10. Surveying services (3.2%)

Computer and software retaining has low barriers to entry, says Mark Ganz, senior industry analyst at IBISWorld. “With the high Australian dollar importing software becomes more attractive so you will see more players enter the market which will correlate with increased employment growth.”

Many of the new jobs created over the next five years will be service jobs. “As the economy develops, growth moves from manufacturing to services. It’s a long-term trend you see with many First World economies,” says Ganz. “A lot of these will be part-time jobs.”

Not all are lowly paid. Accounting services is expected to keep growing because of strong pent-up demand and increased reporting burdens for companies. It has created strong demand for people with accounting degrees and their salaries are on the rise.

Following the record unemployment rate we are now enjoying, IBISWorld expects the unemployment rate to fluctuate within a narrow band of 4.7% to 5.1% over five years to 2012.

“We are expecting a rise in the unemployment rate from around 2009-10 and onwards due to a forecast slowdown in the domestic economy, increasing worker productivity, with fewer employees required to perform the same tasks, and globalisation of the workforce, which may see more jobs lost to lower cost workforces in Asia and potentially Africa over the long term,” says Jason Baker, general manager of IBISWorld.