Business leaders used to be congratulated for creating new jobs and successful public companies recorded any increased numbers of employees in their annual reports with great pride.

How things have changed, with many of our highest remunerated executives now being rewarded for destroying jobs! It would seem the more job losses the higher the boss’s bonuses, if Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank are to be used as local examples – over 10,000 in each case.

Of course, management will usually respond they are protecting the jobs of all the employees fortunate enough to still hold positions in their industry, and if they don’t act in their shareholders’ interests the company will not even have a future in these testing economic times.

The manufacturing industry was on the receiving end of a very public coup de grace when Pacific Brands announced last week that 1,850 employees will be sacked over the next year as the company shuts down its clothing manufacturing in Australia.

But is there any alternative? Can we stem the increasing torrent of job losses brought on by the global financial crisis? And can our governments compel private enterprise to operate inefficiently for social rather than economic reasons?

Whilst we can all empathise with NSW workers in Bonds factories in Cessnock, Wentworthville and Unanderra and King Gee in Bellambi the sad fact of life is that in the 21st century you need growing, globally competitive industries to create, or even just maintain, real jobs.

And clearly this most basic of industries does not fit the required mould. 

Think about it.

- Material costs are high.
- Labour costs are high.
- All our safety and compliance costs are high.
- Our state and federal taxes are high … I could go on.

Virtually all inputs are expensive - and our market size, on a global scale, is small.

Forget about the branding. If you think the average Aussie shopper will pay a premium to purchase an iconic locally produced product, in the middle of a global crisis… well, just ask Dick Smith.

Say no more.

Think outside the usual nine dots

Premier Nathan Rees has taken a leaf out of PM Rudd’s book with his own jobs summit and posed the question: what are the types of industries NSW needs to foster to get our state economy back on track in the years ahead?

A few unions and universities are jumping on the bandwagon with fairly predictable (but practical) proposals. Naturally, if we can use our existing industries to boost the emergence of newer greener industries … it’s a no-brainer, e.g. supplying the steel for the blades of wind turbines has been suggested.

My personal belief is that we have to think outside the usual nine dots and concentrate on commercialising the research and development already underway in our universities.

For starters we could investigate all the theses of current PhD students and identify which ones are linked to emerging technologies or existing industries still predicting strong growth. Special emphasis could be placed on intellectual property which is or can be patented.

Most people involved in R&D in this country will tell you the biggest hindrance to exploiting these opportunities in the past has been the lack of financial support in the form of risk capital and this is something governments could actually do something about.

Even a very small fraction of the billions still being pumped into our super funds each year would do the trick!