Lots of jobs in the 'app economy' (whatech.com)

Australia's 'app economy' - the industry centred around the development of smartphone and tablet apps - is thriving, accounting for a greater percentage of IT jobs than its counterparts in either the US or the UK, says a new report from the Progressive Policy Institute.

In the report Jobs in the Australian App Economy PPI says: "We estimate that the Australian app economy employed roughly 140,000 workers as of June 2014. The top state was New South Wales, with 77,000 app economy jobs, but every state had some app economy employment. Moreover, we note that Australia stacks up well against the United States and the United Kingdom when it comes to app economy employment per capita."

It puts app economy jobs in Australia at 9.4 percent of total IT jobs, compared to 8.4 percent in the US and 7.6 percent in the UK. In Sydney and Melbourne app economy jobs accounted for 10.7 and 10.9 percent, respectively of all IT jobs. This was well behind Silicon Valley with 17.6 percent, but comparable to other leading centres: New York City at 10.5 percent, Chicago at 9.5 percent and London at 9.3 percent.

PPI says: "It’s astonishing how fast many companies have embraced the app economy, hiring the workers needed to develop mobile applications at a rapid rate. We are seeing the creation of new specialties and new ways to interact with customers and employees."

It points out that building a successful app is not a one-shot deal. "Think of an app like a car—once built, it still needs to be repaired (in the case of bugs or security risks), updated, and maintained."

PPI adds that, just as the automobile industry supports a large number of workers, from engineers to factory production workers to sales to service stations, so too does the app economy support a significant number of workers.

"An Australian company that does app development has to hire sales people, marketers, human resource specialists, accountants, and all the myriad of workers that inevitably make up the modern workforce. Finally, each app developer supports a certain number of local jobs."

The report provides a comprehensive definition of an app economy job as:

• An IT-related job that uses app economy skills—the ability to develop, maintain, or support mobile applications. It calls this a 'core' app economy job.
• A non-IT job (such as human resources, marketing, or management) that supports app developers in the same enterprise. It calls this an 'indirect' app economy job.
• A job in the local economy that is supported by app developers. It calls this a 'spillover' job.

To identify app economy jobs PPI compiled a list of key words and phrases that would generally be associated with app economy-related skills, including iOS, Blackberry API, Windows Phone and Android.

It says: "Based on this analysis, the Australian app economy turns out to be remarkably diverse. A surprisingly broad range of Australian enterprises are searching for workers who have the ability to develop, maintain, or support mobile applications."

Based on this analysis PPI says there are seven types of Australian enterprises that hire app economy workers:

• Large, medium, and small app developers who may be creating apps for themselves or for clients;
• Media and software companies that engage in app development for consumer use under their own name;
• Finance and retail companies that use apps to reach customers;
• Other small and large non-tech companies that are developing and using apps for internal and customer purposes;
• Nonprofits and government agencies, including the military, that hire app developers directly or indirectly;
• Large companies—including Apple, Google and Microsoft—that develop and maintain mobile app ecosystems/platforms;
• Accounting and IT consulting firms that provide app development as part of a larger suite of services.