Structural Economic Changes Parramatta City between 2001 And 2011 - Essay Example

Parramatta City Council Name Course Lecturer Date Structural Economic Changes Parramatta City between 2001 And 2011 Parramatta has experienced massive structural economic changes from 2001 to 2011. Parramatta region has various industries and sectors represented. Some of the industries and sectors found in the region are agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining, manufacturing, electricity and water, gas and waste services, construction, wholesale, retail trade, accommodation and hospitality services, food services, transport postal and warehousing, public administration and many others. Financial and insurance services are also well developed and represented in the region. Moreover, the region has developed to an education hub. The arts and recreational services have also been developing steadily in the ten year period. Parramatta city is a suburb of Sydney region, Sydney is the largest urban center in Australia (Gibson-Graham 2014). This has included Parramatta to grow rapidly. Bearing in mind that Sydney is a coastal town, many companies and enterprises, both local and international, has set their operations in Parramatta because of its proximity to Sydney central business district, ports, railway, substations and airport. Most of industries and sectors in Parramatta have experienced positive structural economic changes while few sectors and industries have recorded a negative structural economic trend. By 2011, Parramatta region was experiencing a very high growth and expansion both socially and economically. These structural changes made many people to migrate to Parramatta in search of opportunities to do business and for employment as well (Rowe 2008). Some of the sectors that have provided the highest number of opportunities from 2001 to 2011 are retail trade, construction, manufacturing, wholesale, accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance as well as professional scientific and technical services. Agriculture, forestry and fishing is the sector that experienced the highest rate of decline, the Parramatta industry data indicates that this sector declined by 36% in the period understudy. This means that opportunities in this sector declined by 36 percent from 437 in 20101 to 280 in 2011. This sector recorded the highest decline, the economic activities in this sector reduced. They may be attributed to increased conservation and the need to regulate the environment. This is in line with the state and federal government’s assertions of preserving, conserving and enhancing environmental management. Moreover, the manufacturing sector also recorded a decline in structural economic changes. Although it is the sector with the highest opportunities, it recorded a negative trend of structural economic change. It declined by 13% from 19,817 in 2001 to 17,320 in 2011, this represents a decline of 2,497 opportunities. Another sector in Parramatta and Sydney region to record a decline in structural economy is information, media and telecommunications (Economy 2014). It decline was rather small as compared to other sectors, it declined by 3% from 4,324 in 2001 to 4,200 in 2011. Other services also declined by the same rate (3%). Essentially, the sectors and industries that experienced decline were few, just four. All the other sectors and industries experienced growth and positive creation of opportunities. This influenced the structural economy positively. This means that economic opportunities increased, productivity increased as well while growth was inevitable. They did not only create opportunities for the Parramatta and Sydney region but they also contributed to national domestic production. Mining sector had the least number of opportunities with 73 in 2001 but increased tremendously to 222 in 2011. This was the highest structural economic change of all the sectors as indicated by Parramatta industry data, the change was positive at 204%. This means that the mining activities more than doubled between 2001 and 2011 in Parramatta there1by increasing the number of workers by 204%. Contrastingly, the wholesale industry, one of the biggest employers, had the least positive growth rate. It recorded a growth rate of just 6%; by 2011 it had opportunities totaling to 10,290 up from 9,708 in 2001. The retail trade employs the highest number of people; this sector recorded a positive structural economic change of 22% from 2001 to 2011. A lot of people with information skills are in retail sector. It serves almost every other sector and almost all people in Parramatta; this explains why it is the biggest employer as well as creator of opportunities. The rental hiring and real estate services indicate that people moved and settled in this region at an increasing rate. This sector experienced a positive structural economic change of 12%. There was an increase from 2,034 in 2001 to 2,274 in 2011. This does not only indicate growth of real estate and rental hiring services but it also indicates attraction of people to this region. Another impressive sector is healthcare and social assistance, this sector experienced unprecedented growth of 52% from 2001 to 2011. This is a very essential part in the region; it is highly determined and influenced by input of the state and federal government. It indicates that the government invested heavily in growing this sector in Parramatta and Sydney as a whole. The healthcare services and related services improved tremendously for the period from 12,371 in 2001 to 18,858 in 2011. This is one of the significant sectors in the region; they are important measure of social welfare and development in the society. It created a many opportunities; it absorbed almost every person trained in healthcare and social assistance skills. The accommodation and food services indicates a positive structural economic change. It indicates growth of tourism in the region. Many people opt to spend their leisure in the region due to availability of various recreational facilities; this has improved the accommodation and food services. The professional, science and technical services also indicate positive structural economic change; there was increase of 34% in this sector. This indicates growth of intellectual capacity in the region. The public administration and safety increased by 38% as well, this is impressive creation of opportunities. Furthermore, arts and recreation services changed by 44% for better. The increase in recreation and arts services is an indication of increase in leisure, tourism and adventure activities in the region by both locals and persons from all over Australia as well as foreign visitors. Importantly, education and training recorded a30% change; this reinforces the region as an educational hub. Overall, the Parramatta region had a positive change of 20%; all the sectors represented in the region resulted in positive structural economic change as indicated by the industry data. This translates that from 2001 to 2011, Parramatta changed by 20% for the better. Recommendations as To How the Council Could Respond To both the Economic Responses and Strengths One of the most important measures that the Parramatta city council can make is to better management. By making management of resources and services better, it will improve efficiency and effectiveness, this will attract many entrepreneurs, business persons, more firms and service delivery opportunities in the region. This will increase opportunities and hence absorb extra persons in the Parramatta economy. It will also increase tax to the council as well. The council should encourage and make efforts to establish more powerful role of adequate opportunities for innovations, to keep up with the positive changes as well as harmonise the different opinions on the same subject (Olson 2008). This will provide a clear guidance and give more autonomy and responsibilities as well. Another way that the city council can improve on the weakness is increasing innovations for business sector. The council should strengthen the investments of enterprises in innovations, it should give more attention to small and medium sized enterprises. In addition, the council should establish a continuous improvement programs as well as address non-technological issues that hinder growth of the region (Lewis 2013). Notably, the council should eliminate the less successful programs and support measures that have great effects. It should set up a monitoring system to evaluate and follow the progress of the various sectors. By this, it will be able to identify areas for reinforcement and input. The council should increase its effectiveness for coordination as well (Blanke & Chiesa 2013). Setting up a structural fund program to boost the least performing sectors would boost the region economy; it should determine priorities and grant resources accordingly avoiding red tape and administration hiccups (Awokuse 2008). Another recommendation is to strengthen its human resource, it should have dynamic human personnel who are able to analyse situations and come up with amicable and viable solutions. It should have a human resource that very effective in planning, forecasting and addressing all queries from the various sources. There should be a lot of mobility between the public and private sector in the region and reduce barriers work and doing business in Parramatta (Rodrik 2008). Conversely, the council should build and put in place automatic fiscal stabilisers such as escalating welfare payments, progressive taxes, and provide shock absorbers to stabilise the region economy. The effects of these measures would create fiscal boost during periods of negative or weak growth and drug during unusual strong growth (Afonso & Furceri 2010). The council should invest more on human capital by allocating more resources to education, training, science and technology. This is a critical factor in the success of its economy as well as sustainability of growth and development (Atkinson & Easthope 2009). References Afonso, A., & Furceri, D, 2010, Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth: European Journal of Political Economy, 26(4), 517-532. Atkinson, R, & Easthope, H, 2009, the consequences of the creative class: the pursuit of creativity strategies in Australia's cities: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33(1), 64-79. Awokuse, T, O, 2008, Trade openness and economic growth: is growth export-led or import-led; Applied Economics, 40(2), 161-173. Blanke, J, & Chiesa, T, 2013, the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013: In The World Economic Forum. Economy, M, S, 2014: Mapping Australia’s economy. Gibson-Graham, J, K, 2014, Rethinking the economy with thick description and weak theory: Current Anthropology, 55(S9), S147-S153. Lewis, W, A, 2013, Theory of economic growth: Routledge. Olson, M, 2008, the rise and decline of nations: Economic growth, stagflation, and social rigidities: Yale University Press. Rodrik, D, 2008, the real exchange rate and economic growth: Brookings papers on economic activity, 2008(2), 365-412. Rowe, D, 2008, Culture, sport and the night‐time economy: International journal of cultural policy, 14(4), 399-415. Read More