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| The Australian white ibis in its natural habitat: the Sydney CBD. |
The list of the ten industries expected to show the greatest growth hardly paints a picture of Australia as an advanced and innovative information economy! Dominated by primary production, the only service industries are financial asset investment, automotive fuel retailing, domestic airlines and online shopping.
The brightest light in the top ten may be the renewable energy sector, which at least is likely to be driven by investment in new clean energy technologies, and bolstered by regulatory changes (and the increasingly-likely carbon tax) driving reductions in carbon emissions.
On the other hand, the two industries expected to perform worst are both information technology-based: gaming and vending machines manufacturing and wired telecommunications carriers. IBISWorld predicts that the vending machines market will face increasing competition from imports, while gaming will be affected by regional restrictions on gaming machine numbers (intended to combat problem gambling), and competition from sports betting, which is increasingly conducted online and via mobile devices.
TOP TEN BEST-PERFORMING INDUSTRIES
The following table summarises the ten Australian industries predicted by IBISWorld to show the greatest growth in 2011-12.| Industry | Growth | Revenue ($bn) |
| Oil and Gas Production | 18.3% | 41.2 |
| Sugar Manufacturing | 16.3% | 2.7 |
| Organic Farming | 13.0% | 0.5 |
| Mining | 12.9% | 207.7 |
| Automotive Fuel Retailing | 10.9% | 37.0 |
| Multi-Unit Apartment and Townhouse Construction | 10.6% | 11.0 |
| Financial Asset Investors | 9.8% | 17.0 |
| Renewable Energy | 9.7% | 1.4 |
| Online Shopping | 9.0% | 5.5 |
| Domestic Airlines | 9.0% | 13.4 |
BOTTOM FIVE WORST PERFORMING INDUSTRIES
The following table summarises the five Australian industries predicted by IBISWorld to show the greatest negative growth (i.e. largest contraction) in 2011-12.| Industry | Growth | Revenue ($bn) |
| Gaming and Vending Machines Manufacturing | -12.6% | 0.4 |
| Wired Telecommunications Carriers | -7.6% | 10.2 |
| Institutional Building Construction | -7.3% | 10.2 |
| Image Processing and Printing Services | -4.9% | 0.5 |
| Book and Telephone Directory Publishing | -2.4% | 4.2 |
COMMENT
While the Australian economy continues to perform strongly on the back of primary production, and particularly mining (with predicted revenues of over $200bn), it is somewhat disheartening that technology and information industries are unrepresented amongst the top performers. Predicted growth of 10% would have been sufficient to make the list.While there is no doubt innovation taking place within the traditional primary industries, we would hope to see the emergence of some new growth industries more relevant to the information economy. We wonder how long Australia can continue to ride on the back of its natural resources without investing more of the proceeds in a future when those resources will no longer be sufficient to sustain our advanced post-industrial lifestyles?
To read more, IBISWorld has issued a press release, while the report itself, Industries to Fly and Fall in 2011-12 (PDF), is also available for download.
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful. Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.
But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour. If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research. My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection. But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me. If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.
The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months. No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar. You might even find it to be fun!
There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net. In particular, you can read:
- a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
- instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.
Thank you for considering this request!
Mark Summerfield
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