The Impact Of Employment Level Of Retail And Hospitality Industries On The GDP Of Australia

Current Status of Economic Growth and GDP of Australia

The employment level and GDP of the country has the direct relationship. The level of employment influences the spending power of people and support the growth of the country. The economic policy changes and initiatives of the national government have supported the overall all growth of industries of Australia. The free movement development of quality infrastructure for business has influenced the employment level and business operations of organizations from different industries (Chok, Mannix, Dickson and Wilkes, 2018). The current research will provide information about the economic growth and contribution of the retail and hospitality industry through providing the employment opportunities.  

The economic changes and initiatives of industries have the direct and indirect impact on the spending power and level of employment that influence the level of employment. The major issues that research will be going to analyze involve the issues that influence the employment level and growth of the retail and hospitality industry. Moreover, the identification of overall GDP operations that creating opportunities for selected industries to generate the numbers of job positions (Malik, Rosenberger, Fitzgerald, and Houlcroft, 2016). Apart from that, the research will analyze the relationship between employment level and GDP growth of the country.         

Aim

The aim of study is to identify the impact of employment level of retail and hospitality industries on the GDP of the Australia.

Objectives

• To assess the impact of employment level on the GDP of Australia
• To analyze the factors contributing in development of employment level of retail and hospitality industries of Australia
• To identify the growth of GDP of country considering the growth of retail and hospitality industries in recent times

The research will help to gain knowledge about employment level and GDP growth considering the data about the retail and hospitality industry. The analysis of tactical and strategic decisions that have taken by the retail and hospitality industry for creating the job opportunities will help to understand the continuous growth will also support in understanding the stable financial conditions of the country and approach to overcoming the unemployment level (Bugeja, da Silva Rosa, Izan, and Ngan, 2017). However, Australia is experiencing the positive growth in GDP and development of infrastructure for the business organization but there are some factors that have the negative impact on the growth of particular industries that will be analyzed in the study.           

Overview of GDP of Australia

According to Chua and Robinson (2018), Australia is been listed among one of the wealthiest Asia Pacific countries and had experienced remarkable economic expansion in the past two decades.  The Australian economy is the mixed market economy having the GDP of about A$ 1.69 trillion in the year 2017. The strong market democracy of the country is been benefitted by the effective governmental system which allows vibrant development of entrepreneurship (GDP Australia, 2012-2022, 2018). It has been seen that the labor market of Australia is well supported by the flexible and modern employment code.  The largest segment of the Australian economy is been covered by the service sector accounting for nearly about 70% of the GDP and 75% of the job rates (Bajada, 2017). The country is been experiencing a continuous growth, low public debt, low unemployment, contained inflation, and the stable financial system from past two decades.  

Australia is been identified as one of the few countries which are still experiencing positive economic growth. It is been recorded that the economy of Australia had continued to grow with the increase in GDP of 2.4% in 2017. It has been identified that the Australian economy had recorded a growth of nearly about 0.9% in the June quarter of 2018. The major industries that are contributing to the GDP of the country involve the construction, services, mining, and agriculture (Nguyen and Duncan, 2017). The level of unemployment in the country is 5.5 % in February 2018 and the labor force was 12.7 million. Apart from that, the GDP of the nation is highly dominated by the services sectors that have 61.1% contribution. The services sector organizations like hospitality and retail sector are employing 79.8% labor force and supporting the growth of the country. The banking system of the country is strong and supporting the government to maintain the growth in different sectors of business and infrastructure development (Próchniak, 2018). The nation has applied the open market policies with minimal restrictions on the import of goods and services that help to increase the productivity in the retail sector. In spite of that, the tourism sector of the nation is also contributing in the GDP as in the financial year of 2016/17 the tourism activities were increased by 3 % and encouraged the hospitality industry to expand the level of services and products to attract the visitors and customers (Australia Economy – overview – Economy. 2018). Additionally, the domestic tourism is having the significant role in the GDP of the country as the tourism industry is representing the 73% of total direct tourism GDP. The hospitality industry is offering jobs for new and experienced candidates considering their level of skills.

Retail and Hospitality Industries as Key Contributors to Employment and GDP Growth

Factors that contributing in development of employment level of retail and hospitality industry of Australia

The retail and hospitality industries are having potential and growing the business by utilizing the trends and opportunities of the market. According to Pandya and Sisombat, (2017), the trends for the retail industry like online ordering and home delivery functions of the organizations have created new technical and operational job positions for the people. There are more than 140,000 businesses are running within the retail industry of Australia and providing the employment to the 1.2 million workers or 10% of the Australian workforce. This is the second largest industry of the country in terms of employment level (Labor force, Australia, 2018). The retail industry is undergoing significant transformation due to the impact of the technology and changes in the consumer expectations and the behavior. Apart from that, the major challenge of the retail industry to maintaining the growth in the employment level is training to the staff. The formal training culture of the industry is affecting the growth and approach of developing the workforce (Oddo et al., 2017). The organizations are looking for experienced people for managing the operations but lack of job functions and training initiatives affecting the innovation drive in the retail industry.

The hospitality industry is maintaining significant growth in business and contributing to the improvement of the employment level for the county. According to Schofield and et al., (2018), the hospitality industry of the country is offering products and services to the 8.2 million international visitors every year. The domestic tourism growth of country was 7% in last year. However, the employment level of the hospitality industry was low in the past few years but the development of infrastructure and demand for standards accommodation, food, and beverages services is increased. As per the analysis of Jackson, (2014), the factors that influence the employment level for hospitality industry involves the development of infrastructure, improvement in the services like spa, beautification, transportation and online support to the visitors. In addition to this, a collaborative approach with tourism organizations from the international market has also generated new job positions within the industry. The new candidates are also taking interest in hospitality management functions and getting the job opportunities from the growing industry. The issues that affect the employment level in the hospitality industry is the high availability of people on holidays, seasonal jobs functions and long working hours (Scott, Falkmer, Girdler and Falkmer, 2015). The salary and wages that offered by the organizations is also low that influencing the decisions of experienced people to avoid such jobs position.

Major impacts of employment level of retail and hospitality industry on GDP of Australia 

The retail and hospitality industries are looking to maintain growth and employment level in their areas of working. The positive approach of both industries particularly in employment level is having the positive impact on the overall GDP of the country as the spending power of people is increasing. The earning level of people is increased that has the vital role in GDP and consumer behavior of the local population. As per the views of Daniell and Kay, (2018), GDP of any country could be enhanced by increasing the employment rate i.e. by hiring the larger number of labor the producer would produce more and then attain the higher GDP out of it. It is been identified that the GDP could be increased even if the rate of unemployment is high. However, it has been normally observed that with the rise in employment, there is a strong tendency of raising the GDP as well.

Challenges Faced by Retail and Hospitality Industries in Maintaining Employment Level

The unemployment rate is been found to be highest at 11.20% and lowest at 4.00% of the economy. Moreover, the employment rate had declined from 62.10% to 54% in the year 2018 (Beer et al., 2016).  According to the labor force reports, it has been seen that the employment had increased from 29,000 to nearly about 12,620,700. The rate of unemployment had decreased to 5.3% currently. The trends have recorded the remarkable change in the labor market and depicted a positive result of the economy (Labor force, Australia, 2018). However, the GDP of Australia had experienced a decline from 3 in 2012 to 2.4 in the year 2017.  

Research philosophy 

In order to conduct the research, three types of philosophies are used that involve interpretive, positivism and realism. For the current study about the analysis of the impact of the employment level on the GDP of the country, the researcher has selected the mix philosophy which is realism (Mackey and Gass, 2015). This kind of philosophy will help to consider both objective and subjective variables of the study to provide the solution of the problems.     

Research approach 

The research approach helps the researcher to investigate different possibilities in a specific manner to collect, evaluate and interpret the facts and information related to the selected topic of research (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). There are two types of approaches used such as deductive and inductive. For the current study, the researcher has selected the deductive approach for evaluating the impact of employment level on the GDP of Australia by considering the data of retail and hospitality industries.

Research design 

The research design is categories in three aspects such as exploratory, descriptive and casual. For the current research, the investigator has considered the descriptive design for analyzing the depended and independent variable like employment level impact on the GDP of the country (Glesne, 2015). It will help to meet the desired outcome of the study in professional manners.

Research type 

There are majorly three types of techniques are used such as qualitative, quantitative and mix. For the current research, the investigator has applied the mixed type for providing the solutions for the issues (Flick, 2015). The quantitative type will help to understand the different factors related to the employment level in the retail and hospitality industries and qualitative type will support to identify the growth of GDP. The proper consideration of statistical and theoretical data will improve the outcome of the study.

Data collection 

The collection of data is an important element of research that increases the reliability and validity of the research. There are two types of approaches used for collecting data such as primary and secondary. For the current research, the researcher has selected secondary data collection process for obtaining the relevant data for the study. In order to collect the secondary data, the researcher has analyzed the source like books, journals, and websites of particular retail and hospitality industries (Ledford, and Gast, 2018). Moreover, the researcher has obtained the data of GDP of Australia from the government sites.

Conclusion

Data analysis 

The data analysis is having the significant impact on the outcome of the study as proper analysis and interpretation of data support to provide the solution of the problems. For the current study, the researcher has analyzed the data using the SPSS tool and provides analysis of data using graphs and tables (Fusch and Ness, 2015).  Moreover, the consideration of statistical data has helped to improve the validity and reliability of the research.

Ethical consideration 

The researcher has followed principles of conducting research to improve the effectiveness of the research. The researcher has tried to avoid ethical issues in the collection of secondary data as well as maintaining the standards parameters of the study. The researcher ensures that the data is plagiarism free and cannot be manipulated. Moreover, the collected data will not be used for the further purpose (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015).  

Descriptive analysis 

Descriptive Statistics
	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
Employment rate (Overall)	6	11	12	11.50	.548
Employment level in retail industry	6	6	8	7.00	.632
Employment level in hospitality industry	6	5	7	6.17	.753
GDP	6	2	3	2.33	.516
Valid N (listwise)	6

The descriptive analysis shows mean values of the collected data. According to current descriptive analysis, the mean value of the overall employment rate of Australia is 11.50 and employment rate of retail and hospitality industries is 7 and 6.17 respectively. Moreover, the GDP of Australia is 2.33.   

Correlation

Correlations
	Employment rate (Overall)	Employment level in retail industry	Employment level in hospitality industry	GDP
Employment rate (Overall)	Pearson Correlation	1	-.577	.243	0.000
Sig. (2-tailed)		.230	.643	1.000
N	6	6	6	6
Employment level in retail industry	Pearson Correlation	-.577	1	.420	0.000
Sig. (2-tailed)	.230		.407	1.000
N	6	6	6	6
Employment level in hospitality industry	Pearson Correlation	.243	.420	1	-.686
Sig. (2-tailed)	.643	.407		.132
N	6	6	6	6
GDP	Pearson Correlation	0.000	0.000	-.686	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	1.000	1.000	.132
N	6	6	6	6

Correlation is method of statistical evaluation that used to study the strength of a relationship between variables. For the current study, the relationship between overall employment rate and GDP is null. The retail industry employment level is also not having any impact on the GDP of the country. However, the analysis shows that, the employment level of hospitality industry is having negative relation on the GDP. Now, it can be considered that overall employment and retail industry employment level is not having any impact on the GDP.       

Regression

Regression between Employment level (overall) and GDP

Model Summaryb
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.000a	0.000	-.250	.577
a. Predictors: (Constant), Employment rate (Overall)
b. Dependent Variable: GDP

Regression analysis is set of statistical processes for estimating the relation among the different variables. For the current analysis of overall employment level and GDP the value of R squares is 0.00 which shows any relations as change in the overall employment level influence the GDP of country.   

Regression between Employment level in retail industry and GDP

Model Summaryb
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.000a	0.000	-.250	.577
a. Predictors: (Constant), Employment level in retail industry
b. Dependent Variable: GDP

The regression analysis of employment level of retail industry and GDP of country is same as the overall employment level and GDP. This retail employment level does not affect the GDP much. The standard deviation is .577 and value of R square is 0.00 which not shows any kind of impact on the GDP as the employment level changes in the retail industry.       

Regression between Employment level in hospitality industry and GDP

Model Summaryb
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.686a	.471	.338	.420
a. Predictors: (Constant), Employment level in hospitality industry
b. Dependent Variable: GDP

The regression analysis of employment level in hospitality industry and GDP of Australia show the negative impact. According to analysis, the changes in the employment level within hospitality industry influence the GDP in negative manner as the value of R square is .471 and standard division value is 0.420.   

The findings from the literature review involve that the employment level of the retail and hospitality industries of Australia is increasing and having the significant impact on the overall growth of the GDP. The technological modification and improvement in the consumer buying behavior have supported these organizations to improve the human resources and develop new jobs.  The factors that influence the employment level for hospitality industry involves the development of infrastructure, improvement in the services like spa, beautification, transportation and online support to the visitors.

In spite of that, the major findings of the study involve that, the improvement in the employment level of the retail and hospitality industries is positively contributing to the growth of GDP. The supply chain and online booking and delivery functions are having the vital impact on the business functions of these industries and helping them to attract the customers and provide the customized services to retain them for the longer period of time.

Conclusion, recommendation and limitations

Addressing aim and research questions 

The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of employment level of retail and hospitality industry on the GDP of Australia and the outcome of research has met that by showing the relationship between employment level and growth of GDP of the country. The employment level of both industries is increasing and supporting the GDP growth in a positive manner.

It has been seen that the employment had increased from 29,000 to nearly about 12,620,700. The rate of unemployment had decreased to 5.3% currently. The domestic hospitality and tourism growth of country was 7% in last year. However, the employment level of the hospitality industry was low in the past few years but the retail industry is growing and providing the employment to the 1.2 million workers or 10% of the Australian workforce. Australia had continued to grow with the increase in GDP of 2.4% in 2017. The largest segment of the Australian economy is been covered by the service sector accounting for nearly about 70% of the GDP and 75% of the job rates.

Recommendations

In order to maintain the sustainable growth in employment level and GDP of the country, the leading industries have to focus on areas of operations that could improve the sales and create the jobs. For improvement in operation, the consideration of technical tools and future market trends like online booking and home delivery options needs to be improved. For the hospitality industry, it is recommended to conduct the past data analysis to identify the problems and overcome by applying skilled human resources.

Limitations

The major limitations of research were time management and consideration of valid data for the analysis. The researcher has spent a lot of time on the collection and analysis of data to meet the aim and objectives of the research. Moreover, lacking in knowledge of the implementation of methodologies also affected the approach of conducting research.    

References                      

Books and journals

A Daniell, K., & Kay, A. (2018). Multi-level Governance: Conceptual challenges and case studies from Australia (p. 474). ANU Press.

Bajada, C. (2017). Australia’s Cash Economy: A Troubling Issue for Policymakers: A Troubling Issue for Policymakers. Routledge.

Beer, A., Bentley, R., Baker, E., Mason, K., Mallett, S., Kavanagh, A., & LaMontagne, T. (2016). Neoliberalism, economic restructuring and policy change: Precarious housing and precarious employment in Australia. Urban studies, 53(8), 1542-1558.

Bugeja, M., da Silva Rosa, R., Izan, H. Y., & Ngan, S. (2017). Choice of acquisition form in Australia and the post?takeover employment of target firm directors on the acquiring firm board. Accounting & Finance.

Chok, H. N., Mannix, J., Dickson, C., & Wilkes, L. (2018). The factors impacting personal and professional experiences of migrant nurses in Australia: An integrative review. Collegian, 25(2), 247-253.

Chua, C. L., & Robinson, T. (2018). Why has Australian wages growth been so low? A Phillips curve perspective. Economic Record.

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Glesne, C. (2015). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson.

Jackson, D. (2014). Factors influencing job attainment in recent Bachelor graduates: evidence from Australia. Higher Education, 68(1), 135-153.

Ledford, J. R., & Gast, D. L. (2018). Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.

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Malik, A., Rosenberger III, P. J., Fitzgerald, M., & Houlcroft, L. (2016). Factors affecting smart working: Evidence from Australia. International Journal of Manpower, 37(6), 1042-1066.

McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.

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Oddo, V. M., Bleich, S. N., Pollack, K. M., Surkan, P. J., Mueller, N. T., & Jones-Smith, J. C. (2017). The weight of work: the association between maternal employment and overweight in low-and middle-income countries. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), 66.

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Próchniak, M. (2018). The impact of product market competition on GDP per capita growth in the EU countries: does the model of capitalism matter?. Post-Communist Economies, 30(2), 131-155.

Schofield, D., Cunich, M., Shrestha, R. N., Tanton, R., Veerman, L., Kelly, S., & Passey, M. E. (2018). The long-term economic impacts of arthritis through lost productive life years: results from an Australian microsimulation model. BMC public health, 18(1), 654.

Scott, M., Falkmer, M., Girdler, S., & Falkmer, T. (2015). Viewpoints on factors for successful employment for adults with autism spectrum disorder. PloS one, 10(10), e0139281.

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Online

Australia Economy – overview – Economy. (2018). [Accessed through] <https://www.indexmundi.com/australia/economy_overview.html> [Accessed on 27 September 2018]

GDP Australia, 2012-2022, (2018), [Accessed through] < https://www.statista.com/statistics/263573/gross-domestic-product-gdp-of-australia/> [Accessed on 27 September 2018]

Labor force, Australia, (2018), [Accessed through] < https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6202.0> [Accessed on 27 September 2018