South Australia's manufacturing industry has recorded negative growth in annual average employment between 2000-01 and 2009-10, according to official national figures.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports the Manufacturing industry has been surpassed by Health Care and Social Assistance as the industry with the largest average annual employment in South Australia since 2006-07.

In 2009-10, Manufacturing had average annual employment of 83,700 persons compared with 103,300 for Health Care and Social Assistance. Other South Australian growth industries in terms of average annual employment were the Construction and the Professional, Scientific and Technical industries.

From a production perspective Manufacturing still recorded the largest contribution to South Australia's economy over 2000-01 to 2009-10. However, its contribution to Gross State Product (GSP), in industry gross value added terms, fell from 15.0 per cent to 11.7 per cent over this period.

ABS said to some degree, this decline was offset by the state's Construction industry which increased its contribution to GSP from 4.4 per cent to 6.6 per cent, and Health Care and Social Assistance up from 6.7 per cent to a 7.4 per cent share of GSP.