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Table 1 Industry of employment trends 1996-2006
Source: ABS Census 2006

In the report The ACT and Its Region: Economic relationships and key drivers of economic growth (2008), Access Economics makes several points of interest about the labour market of the ACT and its surrounding region. These include:

• The Australian Capital Region (ACR – which includes Eurobodalla and Bega Valley but excludes Wingecarribee, Tumut and Tumbarumba) is relatively over-represented in the Government administration and Defence sector, in part due to the strong Defence presence that spills over from the ACT into the ACR.

• The relative over-representation of cultural and recreational services owes much to the recreation activities based on both the South Coast and on the NSW ski fields.

• The farm, forestry and fishing sector of the ACR’s southern coast is its stand-out area. Relative to the rest of Australia, the ACR clearly has considerable strengths in this sector. Despite this, this decade to date has seen employment in the sector drop back to a third of the levels seen in the 1990s, due to environmental concerns and changed forestry practices.