Australia’s manufacturing recovery is concentrated in four industries

Australian manufacturing employment is recovering, but the recovery is much narrower than the headline numbers suggest.

ABS Australian Industry data show manufacturing employment increased from 844,100 in June 2019 to 900,800 in June 2025 — a gain of 56,700 jobs, or 6.7 per cent. Employment is now above 900,000 for the first time since 2012, after falling to 830,200 in 2020.

But 49,500 of those additional jobs came from just four of the 15 manufacturing subdivisions: food products, fabricated metal products, transport equipment, and machinery and equipment. Together, they account for 87.3 per cent of the net increase in manufacturing employment since 2019.

Food manufacturing made the largest contribution, adding 17,700 jobs to reach 231,500 employees. Transport equipment added 14,100 jobs, fabricated metals 9,300 and machinery and equipment 8,400.

The same concentration appears in industry value added. Total manufacturing industry value added increased by $32.0 billion between 2019 and 2025, from $109.9 billion to $142.0 billion. The same four industries accounted for $26.5 billion — 82.7 per cent — of that nominal increase.

This matters because the recovery should not be interpreted as a simple return of Australia’s old manufacturing economy.

Manufacturing employment remains about 105,000 below its 2007 level. And the composition of the sector has changed markedly. Food manufacturing now employs 231,500 people, more than one-quarter of all manufacturing workers. By contrast, textile, leather, clothing and footwear employment has fallen from 53,800 in 2007 to 24,500, while printing employment has more than halved from 50,400 to 24,000.

Transport equipment is particularly notable. Employment fell heavily during the long decline of Australian automotive manufacturing, reaching 71,300 in 2019. It has since rebounded to 85,400. The category includes considerably more than passenger cars, so the source of that growth warrants closer examination.

The aggregate story, then, is not that Australian manufacturing has simply returned. It is that a different manufacturing sector is emerging. Employment growth is increasingly concentrated in food, metal fabrication, transport equipment and machinery — while much of the older industrial base remains smaller than it was two decades ago.