then after the boom, the flow of immigrants slowed considerably. it is also clear that, over recent years, more people have been moving from western australia to other states than vice versa. this is in stark contrast to the boom years. the overall conclusion here is that the movement of people has helped even things out across the economy. 9 / 16 bis central bankers'speeches the other possible explanation for the reduced dispersion in unemployment rates is that many of the economic shocks we experience nowadays are less regionally concentrated – with the mining investment boom being an obvious exception! – perhaps because of less variation in the structure of regional economies. it is difficult to test this idea rigorously, especially the nature of the shocks. but we can look at the variation across the country in the industries in which people work and the type of jobs they have. my colleagues at the rba have done this using census data for the more than 300 separate geographical areas in australia. 3 using these data, they have constructed indices of how different the various regions are in terms of the industries that people work in and the occupations that they have. i will spare you the technical details of these calculations. 4 my colleagues have also calculated how these indices have moved through time and they have conducted the exercise both including and excluding the regions with a heavy concentration in mining. the results are shown in this next graph ( graph 10 ). 10 / 16 bis central bankers'speeches the main conclusion from this work is that, on average, regions are becoming more similar. over time, the industries we are working in, and our occupations, are becoming more alike across australia, not more different. there are, of course, still large differences across regions, but they are smaller than they once were. one important reason for this is the increasing relative importance of service industries, and the decline in the relative importance of manufacturing. both of these are national phenomena. using the data from the 300 - plus individual regions, it is clear that the variation across the country in the share of the workforce employed in the manufacturing industry has declined since the early 2000s ( graph 11 ). in 2016, the distribution is more tightly clustered around a lower average than it was in 2001. it is also clear from the census data that those regions that had a relatively high share of workers employed in manufacturing in 2001 have tended to have faster growth in services employment than have other regions. so we are becoming more alike. 11 / 16 bis central bankers'speeches none of this is

glenn stevens : central bank communication address by mr glenn stevens, governor of the reserve bank of australia, to the sydney institute, sydney, 11 december 2007. * * * this evening i would like to talk about central bank communication. there are plenty of people who probably think that “ central bank ” and “ communication ” are not expressions that are normally thought of as belonging together. yet communication has become steadily more open, and more important, in the central banking world over the years. at one time, overnight interest rates used to be adjusted without announcement or explanation – “ snugging ” was a popular term of the late 1980s. the market would generally take a few days, and the general public considerably longer, to work out what was happening when monetary policy was changing. they usually had to wait longer again for an explanation of why it was changing. that is no longer the case. these days, central banks say they are moving the interest rate, and say why, very openly. this particular form of transparency was adopted quite early at the rba, back in 1990, under bernie fraser. not only do they announce policy changes in a forthright fashion, most central banks set out their detailed assessment of economic conditions in published material. in a number of cases, they publish minutes of their policy discussions. governors and others give speeches, appear before parliamentary committees and are frequently quoted by various commentators in the media. for central banks, historically quite discreet organisations, this is quite a change. i want to examine the reasons behind that change, and the case for openness. i want also to talk about the limits of openness. finally, i will elaborate a little on our own recently announced changes in this area. why communicate? to begin with, it is worth asking the question : why do central banks communicate? there are at least two reasons. the first arises from the principle of accountability in an open and democratic society. the central bank is charged with some important responsibilities – maintaining the purchasing power of the nation ’ s currency, pursuing “ full employment ” and fostering stable and reliable financial and payments systems, among others. it is endowed with substantial powers – in the rba ’ s case, to buy and sell financial assets, commodities, real property, to lend money and to make certain regulations – in fact, to do anything that could be thought to come within the remit of “ central banking business ”. it stands to reason that the central bank should expect to account for the way in