Manufacturing in Australia

Key industry trends

• Manufacturing performance has strongly rebounded during and following the pandemic – with material increases in value-add, employment, exports, financial performance and capex.
• Australian manufacturing is consolidating into more competitive subindustries. Food & beverages and metals production have grown, while petrochemicals, machinery and other manufacturing have declined.
• Manufacturing has faced tough cost pressures during the recent period of inflation but has also enjoyed buoyant sales price growth. Manufacturer margins have improved since the pandemic.
• Labour supply is the most acute pressure on Australian manufacturing today. Job vacancies are at record rates, job turnover is growing, and wages growth is at a 16-year high.
• Manufacturing has been very successful in reducing its gender pay gap, which has fallen from 16.8% to 11.2% in a decade. However, workforce gender composition is proving slow to change.

Key industry Key industry trends numbers for 2023-24

In 2024, Australian manufacturing saw a: