WASHINGTON—The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) today released a new report, “The Rise of the Australian App Economy,” which estimates 113,000 workers are employed in the Australian App Economy, a growth of at least 11 percent since 2014. It also calculates app Intensity — the number of App Economy jobs in a country as a percentage of total jobs in that country. Australia has an App Intensity of 0.9 percent. By comparison, Europe has an App Intensity of 0.8 percent, while the U.S. App Intensity is 1.1 percent.
The report includes estimates of App Economy jobs by state and as a percentage of all jobs on a state-by-state basis. More than 56,000 workers are employed in the App Economy in New South Wales, 29,000 in Victoria, and 14,500 in Queensland.
“The Australian App Economy is remarkably diverse, both in industry and geography,” writes PPI Chief Economic Strategist Michael Mandel, the author of the report. “A surprisingly broad range of enterprises are searching for workers across the country who have the ability to design, develop, maintain or support mobile applications.”
“Remember that any app is exportable, in the sense that it can be downloaded from an app store by anybody around the world, no matter how far the distance. That means the Australian App Economy can become a basis for continued growth. In addition, apps can improve the efficiency and attractiveness of the Australian economy.”
The report also provides an overall breakdown of App Economy employment by operating system, comparing the number of jobs in the iOS ecosystem with the number of jobs in the Android ecosystem. Finally, it compares the estimate here with a 2014 estimate of Australian App Economy jobs done using a somewhat different methodology.
As the App Economy grows in significance globally, it becomes essential to have a consistent set of App Economy job estimates so that policymakers can compare their country’s performance with that of other countries. The ultimate objective for PPI is to be able to track the growth of the App Economy globally, and to see which countries are benefiting the most. Ideally, PPI should be able to link App Economy growth to policy measures implemented by governments.
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