Unemployment in the Orana Far West region has hit historic lows – making recruitment more difficult for businesses striving to recover from the double-whammy of drought and COVID-19.
While low unemployment is generally good news, tempting workers to step out of their coastal and city comfort zones has been an ongoing challenge as employers in our area across all industry sectors struggle to fill positions.
In December 2019 the official unemployment rate for the region was 1.9% and despite a temporary rise immediately following the Coronavirus lockdown in March and April, by the end of June 2020 it had hit an historic low of 1.8%.
“The JobKeeper allowance has buffered the region in terms of businesses being able to retain staff,” said Regional Development Australia Orana (RDA Orana) CEO Megan Dixon.”
“Throughout COVID we’ve had ag in recovery and an expansion in the health sector.
“Government construction projects have also continued to kick along,” she said.
“We’ve also had a strong tourism recovery, with businesses around the region telling us the restrictions on international travel and even the border closures have helped us.”
When it comes to employment, the Orana Far West region is an outlier.
The June quarter unemployment rate for the Central West was 3.6%, Murray Riverina 4.8% and for the New England North West was 5.3%.
Coastal and city regions range from 4.1% in Sydney’s North & West, to 4.7% on the North Coast and Sydney South West has the highest unemployment rate in NSW at 6.2%.
This is still lower than the national level unemployment which topped 7.4% at the end of June, even with the buffering effect of JobKeeper and other government interventions.
Ms Dixon says that RDA Orana has also been monitoring online job vacancies.
“Two weeks ago there were 560 jobs in our region on SEEK, last week it jumped to 610,” she said.
“Those are mostly professional and skilled positions, with quite a few government roles.”
At the local level, the Coonamble Times has carried a solid number of vacancies for full-time permanent positions in recent weeks with private sector, local government and state government departments recruiting in Coonamble.
Social media sites also show several current opportunities for work in clubs, pubs and cafes as well as the district’s agriculture sector.
“Mostly out in the region community and social services and health was already a growing sector, driven by the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) and the changing community structure,” Ms Dixon said.
“We’ve got record low unemployment and until the policy focus changes on making people move to where the jobs are we’re going to struggle.”
For some time RDA Orana have been working to get the message through to government that the lack of mobility in the Australian workforce is a serious issue.
“We do regular briefings to government on economic development,” Ms Dixon said.
“We are now working to formalise this with a submission to government
“We are constantly working on communicating to government that this issue is not going away,” she said.
While the situation means employers have to work harder at recruitment, here is a clear opportunity for communities, councils and employers across the Orana Far West to co-operate to promote the jobs and careers that are on offer.
It seems we are living in the land of opportunity – and a job-hunter’s dream.