So just how many people are employed in the Australian maritime industry?

to determine employment and plan ways to increase its contribution to economic growth. Like all industries, the Australian maritime industry is competing for attention and resources in a busy world – from people working within the industry, government and other stakeholders such as maritime’s larger siblings in the transport industry: road and rail. This article examines how the maritime industry is currently defined in terms of activities and, in particular, employment data. But the vexing question remains to be answered: just how many people are employed in the Australian maritime industry? To answer this question the article investigates different data collection approaches and finally presents a single, comparative snap shot on total employment in the maritime sector of the Australian economy at the close of 2010.