Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the transport and postal sector is creating more jobs than the mining sector.
As The West Australian reports, there are now more than 600,000 workers in transport and postal nationally. This represents a 55,000 lift in the past nine months. The increase is due to the boom in online retailing.
In addition, the statistics show that mining employment in WA and across the nation peaked about a year ago.
Figures for the state’s mining sector show that there are currently 110,500 people employed directly in the industry. This is an increase of 1400 over the previous three months.
WA mining job numbers peaked at 116,700 mid-last year. Since that time, the number of people employed in the industry has decreased by more than 6000.
In contrast, the number of Western Australians working in the transport, postal and warehousing sector has increased by about 14 per cent in the past year to 69,100.