[In]Sight: Economic diversification and the competitiveness of regional Australia
[In]Sight is an online index and interactive map tracking the competitiveness of Australia’s 560 Local Government Areas (LGA) and 55 Regional Development Australia (RDA) regions, unlocking thousands of insights into regional Australia.
[In]Sight’s economic diversification indicator (within the Business Sophistication theme) is based on a comparison of the industry employment profile (% of workers in each industry) for each LGA and RDA with Australia’s national employment profile. More diverse regions have an employment profile closer to the profile for the economy as a whole.
This report shows that:
- Australia’s regions are more economically diverse than most people assume.
- Diversity is possible in all regions.
- While diverse regions are generally also more competitive, many diverse regions are not highly competitive.
While diversification should be included as one indicator of success for regional development,
[In]Sight results suggest that for most regions further diversity of employment should not be a goal in itself. Instead, a strategy of building the local contribution of existing industry to ensure that the
diversity already present in a region can be effective in offsetting the risks from a reliance on one or more key industries.
