The mining boom has not led to more jobs as per a report from the University of Adelaide. The Australian Institute for Social Research published a report saying that while 12,500 people were given employment in the mining sector in 2007 the numbers fell quite a bit in 2010 with just under 8,000 people getting jobs within the mining sector.
The author of the report John Spoehr said that while the mining boom followed the rising commodity prices there has not been any significant growth in the sector for employment. He said that while most people expect that mining employment would've gone up over recent years as a result of significant growth in the sector, but surprisingly it hasn't.
The Mining Minster Tom Koutsantonis said that jobs had declined for a number of reasons. Although it was not possible to pinpoint what were the key factors as it was hard to track down the employment of contractors. He also held the hope that the number of jobs would shortly come up again.
Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond said the so-called boom was not what it seemed when she said that the Government has over-spruiked the whole time that they were in the midst of a mining boom when it's only ever been an exploration boom.