provided a strong anchor for both inflation and wage expectations. after two decades of the inflation - targeting regime there is a fairly broad understanding that unsustainable aggregate wage growth is likely to lead to higher inflation, and thus higher interest rates. looking forward, it is clear that the structure of the economy will continue to evolve. over time, the strong growth in investment in the resources sector will give way to a large increase in exports of resources. this will likely mean some moderation in the demand for labour in the resources sector, and other forms of activity and employment will need to pick up. as this transition occurs, the types of new jobs that are created will also continue to evolve. inevitably, there are uncertainties as to what these new jobs will be, and where they will be located. in the face of this uncertainty, it is essential that the labour market retains its flexibility. the industrial relations laws and practices are important here, but they are by no means the full story. flexibility also comes from having an adaptable workforce – one that has the right general skills, the right training and the right mindset. over the medium term, whether or not australia fully capitalises on the opportunities that the growth of asia presents depends critically upon the ability of both workers and businesses to adapt, and to build and use our human capital. many of these opportunities lie beyond the resources sector – in areas like the unique tourism experiences that are possible here in tasmania, in high - end manufacturing, in high - quality food and in professional services. if we are to take advantage of these opportunities, a highly skilled and outward - looking workforce is critical. recent outcomes i would now like to shorten my gaze a little to look at quite recent developments in the labour market and what they tell us about the overall balance between supply and demand. as i discussed at the outset, the current national unemployment rate is 5¼ per cent, and has been in the 5 to 5¼ per cent range for two years now. as i said, this is a very good outcome by international standards. bis central bankers ’ speeches notwithstanding this, the labour market appears to have generally softened in recent months, with only modest growth in total employment, a decline in average hours worked, and a decline in the employment - to - population ratio ( graph 9 ). various indicators also suggest a lower rate of job creation than was the case a while ago. graph 9 two industries stand out as having particularly weak employment growth over recent times (

. in the past 30 years, there have only been four years in which the unemployment rate has averaged below its current 5¼ per cent. australia has one of the lowest unemployment rates among the advanced economies, an outcome that seemed improbable for much of my professional career. underneath this low and steady unemployment rate, there is a great deal of movement at the individual worker level. although it is still typical for most people to have relatively long tenure in a single job, a large number of people change jobs each year. the latest data available from the australian bureau of statistics ( abs ) show that at february 2012 around 2. 3 million people – almost one - fifth of the total number of employed people – were newly employed, having been in their job for less than a year. while a little under half of these were starting work for the first time or were not previously working, 1. 2 million people moved from one job to another. and this is in a year when the net growth in published employment was just 23, 000. this changing in jobs occurred for a range of reasons. around three - quarters were voluntary, including for personal reasons or to take advantage of new opportunities. the bis central bankers ’ speeches remaining quarter was involuntary, including because the previous employer went out of business or the nature of the business has changed. graph 1 the structural changes in the economy are clearly one factor contributing to this movement of people. this is of course nothing new. there is always a degree of structural change occurring, and the strong growth in the resources sector is but the latest example. nevertheless, there is some evidence that the changes taking place have led to a higher rate of job turnover in recent times than has been the case for the past two decades ( graph 2 ). the number of people who left a job over the year to february 2012, as a share of those employed some time during the year, was the highest in two decades, with fairly high rates of both voluntary and involuntary separations. graph 2 bis central bankers ’ speeches this high rate of turnover, with relatively modest aggregate employment growth, is consistent with a lot of new job opportunities opening up in various parts of the economy and, at the same time, other jobs ceasing to exist. another indication of this is that the official measure of job vacancies has remained relatively high, yet employment growth has been relatively subdued. an additional way of looking at these changes is to examine the dispersion – or standard deviation –