A new report has dashed claims that Australia's telecommunications industry is booming. Instead, during the past decade there's been a significant decline in the number of ICT equipment manufacturing businesses, leading to job losses and a lack of domestic product.
The latest information and communication technology (ICT) industry study - produced by Professor John Houghton from the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University - revealed that employment in the latter half of the 1990s had "contracted" in the sector.
That was despite the country experiencing 'significant growth' in the first half of the decade.
The data - based on material from the Australian Bureau of Statistics - not only highlighted a net loss of jobs, but also a loss of scale, with a reduction in the number of medium and large companies in the late 1990s.
The report revealed that although the Australian market for ICT goods and services experienced AU$65 billion in growth in 1998-99, this was attributed to the Australian market being supplied from overseas.
According to Professor Houghton, a smaller proportion of products was produced locally, with domestic production accounting for only 29 percent in 1998-99, compared to 51 percent of income coming from packaged software in 1995-96.
He also revealed that, due to reduced industry income in the latter half of the decade, the industry suffered job losses, with 2,500 positions cut between 1995-96 and 1998-99.
In 1998-99, 96 percent of all ICT businesses operating in Australia employed fewer than 20 people while less than one percent employed over 100 people.
"Other OECD counties also experienced significant job losses in the telecommunications industry during the early to mid 1990s, but in places like the US and UK, they have started to grow again, whereas we are yet to see any major growth here."
