Accommodation and hospitality have bolted to become among the country's fastest-growing job creators, adding more than 40,000 jobs each over the year to May. There are now 60,000 fewer jobs in Australia's farms, forests and fisheries than there were a decade ago, with 30,000 lost in the past year alone. Credit:Glenn Hunt But they are also driven by the nation's cheapest hires, perpetuating Australia's torpid low wage growth as higher-paid jobs in finance and utilities are cut. "The quarterly data shows that the economy is creating mostly jobs that are below average in terms of earnings," said Citibank economist Jane Clapcott. "The only exception to this is the jobs being created in the professional services sector, but these are geographically concentrated in NSW."

Those professional services, including lawyers and accountants had the strongest surge of all the sectors, adding 62,000 jobs in the past year. Accommodation and hospitality have bolted to become among the country's fastest growing job creators, adding more than 40,000 jobs each over the year to May. Credit:Tamara Voninski The manufacturing sector also made a comeback, contributing an extra 14,000 jobs, while the other historical foundation of the Australian economy, mining, put an extra 3000 people to work over the past year, mostly in WA. "Manufacturing is growing again because of a strong rise in demand for food and beverages and higher state government infrastructure spending," said Commonwealth Bank economist Michael Workman. CHOICE has called on the government to stop subsidising ''junk'' health policies that can cause consumers ''bill-shock". Credit:Nic Walker

"So while the car industry is being wound down, there are other manufacturing groups that will replace those relatively highly paid jobs." He said demand was not only being driven by locals, with a strong push for Australian services from foreigners in the tourism and education sectors. Meanwhile, opportunities for work in agriculture has taken a battering. There are now 60,000 fewer jobs in Australia's farms, forests and fisheries than there were a decade ago, with 30,000 lost in the past year alone. Retail, once Australia's largest employing industry, has also shed 20,000 jobs over the past 12 months but still employs 1.2 million people.

The country's shops narrowly avoided a worse result after the sector gained 13,000 workers in the three months to May. The residential boom in NSW and Victoria has created more than 100,000 jobs in construction since 2010, around 22,000 in the last year alone. But healthcare has been the real driver. There are now 366,000 more jobs in the healthcare sector compared to 2010. At 1.6 million employees it now makes up 14 per cent of the workforce. It is a run that is unlikely to stop. The rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme could see the total rise to 16 per cent, according to analysts. That is 243,000 extra healthcare jobs in the next few years.

"Overall, job gains in the past three months were significant – the largest quarterly gain for over two years. In fact it was the second biggest quarter of job creation in 12 years," said Commsec economist Craig James. "Clearly the latest data serves as yet a further wake-up call to analysts and investors who somehow believe that the job market and broader economy are struggling."