this field much longer runs of data are needed. in my opinion, the accelerated structural change we are seeing in the economy for various reasons is likely to result in some improvement in productivity performance. but the most that can be said, at this stage, is that the data are not inconsistent with that hypothesis. at this point when talking about productivity, i usually become circumspect. one reason is that i know that people might ask what we might do to improve productivity performance, and i am acutely aware that the improvement has to be delivered in enterprises all around the country – the ones associated with ceda and millions more. productivity does not rise simply because of exhortation or official pronouncements. as for policy measures, at a meeting in brisbane earlier this year, i said : the productivity commission has a long list of things to do. my answer to what we can do about productivity is : go get the list and do them. 8 the background to this is that, as part of our preparations for possible questions about productivity from the house economics committee, i had at one stage asked the reserve bank staff to compile a list of areas of reform that the productivity commission had covered at various times. it was this list i had in mind when i made the comment in june. at one hearing of the house economics committee i in fact read from such a list. see house of representatives standing committee on economics ( 2011 ), reserve bank of australia annual report 2010, hrsce, melbourne, 26 august. available at < http : / / parlinfo. aph. gov. au / parlinfo / download / committees / commrep / 306ee889 - 2f7e - 4661 - 964b - 5264b58b7169 / toc _ pdf / standing % 20committee % 20on % 20 economics _ 2011 _ 08 _ 26 _ 393 _ official _ distributed. pdf ; filetype = application % 2fpdf # search = % 22committe es / commrep / 306ee889 - 2f7e - 4661 - 964b - 5264b58b7169 / 0001 % 22 >. bis central bankers ’ speeches that comment elicited some attention. the chairman of the productivity commission was, i am led to understand, inundated with media demands for “ the list ” and had to explain that it

in employment growth across the 19 industries for which the abs publishes data ( graph 3 ). for a number of years now, there has been a high dispersion in employment growth across these industries, with especially strong growth in the mining sector. graph 3 the cumulative effect of this dispersion in growth rates can be seen in total employment growth in different industries ( graph 4 ). since 2007, around 300, 000 net new jobs have been created in the health care sector, 200, 000 jobs in professional and scientific services and around 130, 000 jobs in each of the mining and education sectors. in contrast, the number of manufacturing jobs has declined by around 70, 000, and the number of jobs in retailing is largely unchanged. graph 4 bis central bankers ’ speeches these disparate trends have added to a general sense of uncertainty in many parts of the community. job losses can be very disruptive when they occur. they tend to be more visible than job gains. and they often take place all at once when firms are downsizing or closing, rather than the more gradual process of job creation. the large variation in experience across industries is probably one reason why many people view the labour market to be quite weak. over the past year, we have had the rather unusual situation in which consumers have become quite concerned about rising unemployment, yet the overall unemployment rate has been steady ( graph 5 ). graph 5 more positively, and to the surprise of many people, the significant variation in employment growth across industries has not led to greater variation in the unemployment rates across the country. one way to see this is to compare the distribution of unemployment rates across the 68 regions for which the abs publishes data with the distribution of unemployment rates 10 years ago ( graph 6 ). the picture is pretty clear : the average unemployment rate is lower and the variation across the country is also lower. today, around half the regions have unemployment rates below 5 per cent and 50 of the 68 regions have an unemployment rate below 6 per cent. in only three regions is the unemployment rate above 8 per cent, compared with 13 regions a decade ago. graph 6 bis central bankers ’ speeches one factor that has played at least some role in these outcomes is the willingness of people to travel or move to where the jobs are. the most high - profile example of this is perhaps the fifo – fly in fly out – and the dido – drive in drive out – workers. industry estimates and recent census data suggest that there are currently