Jobs & growth: Good news and bad news

Our potential for decades of high growth demands the creation of millions of high-quality jobs in labour-intensive industries

Our aspiration is to become a developed economy by 2047. A “developed”, or high-income, country has a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) above $14,000, about five times higher than our current level of $2,700. Getting there demands a 2 per cent higher rate of growth (8.5 per cent) for the next quarter-century than we are achieving now (6.5 per cent). Growth and jobs are linked. As countries develop, the most dramatic growth driver is the movement of people from low-productivity agriculture into higher productivity occupations in manufacturing and services. When a farmer’s child migrates and goes