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The largest economic sectors in Sydney, measured by numbers of people employed, include property and business services, retail, manufacturing, and health and community services.[18] Since the 1980s, jobs have moved from manufacturing to the services and information sectors. Sydney provides approximately 25% of the country's total GDP.

Sydney is the largest corporate and financial centre in Australia and is also an important financial centre in the Asia Pacific. The Australian Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia are located in Sydney, as are the headquarters of 90 banks and more than half of Australia's top companies, and the regional headquarters for around 500 multinational corporations. Fox Studios Australia has large movie studios in the city.

The Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) is one of the Asia Pacific's largest financial futures and options exchanges, with 64.3 million contracts traded during 2005. In global terms it is the 12th largest futures market in the world and the 19th largest including options. With the increasing commercial role of Sydney's many medical laboratories and research centres, science and research is another strong growth sector.

Tourism plays an important role in Sydney's economy, with 7.8 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors in 2004.

As of September 2003, the unemployment rate in Sydney was 5.3%. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide cost of living survey, Sydney is the sixteenth most expensive city in the world, while a UBS survey ranks Sydney as 18th in the world in terms of net earnings.

As of December 2005, Sydney has the highest median house price of any Australian capital city at $485 000. A report published by the OECD in November 2005, shows that Australia has the Western World's highest housing prices when measured against rental yields. Sydney has been classified as a "Beta" global city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network. Sydney will host the 2007 APEC Summit.