Job Growth? There’s an app for that – Ten thousand jobs a year created in the App Economy

If you hear someone talk about how a certain new product or technology is going to cost jobs – consider this – there’s always some other new technology creating jobs.

There’s no doubt jobs are changing, new technologies automate tasks and cost jobs. We once had blacksmiths, now we have machines to do that work. Bottom line – industry and jobs change, always have – always will.

So when the “App Economy” was created by the creation of the App Store on Apple devices and shortly later the Google Play Store on Android devices so were a whole heap of new jobs.

When a business needs an app made, they need to find an app developer. When someone has a bright idea – they need an app developer to build it.

New research by the Progressive Policy Institute into the App Economy here in Australia has shown further growth in the industry here.

According to the research there are 136,000 App Economy Jobs in Australia, up from 113,000 just two years ago.

The power of the Apple ecosystem is evident in that 121,000 of those are operating in iOS, with 106,000 working on Android.

NSW dominates the jobs, with 68,000, with Victorian App development employing 38,000 and 15,000 in QLD.

As far as global standings go, Australia is up there with the US and UK with 1.1% of jobs forming part of this App Economy, while Canada leads the list with 1.4% of jobs.

Overall, it’s a huge positive for our economy with the PPI concluding “In recent years Australian exports of computer and information services have soared, rising by 30 percent in 2018 alone. Exports of the category “other computer and information services”—which likely includes app developers— is up more than 60 percent in 2018.”

“We therefore see the App Economy as a powerful force driving growth of both employment and exports in Australia. Apps created in Australia can be easily delivered across the world, without expensive transportation, to generate jobs and income at home.”