Our city of change

THE STORY of Geelong in the 21st century is that of a big city losing its traditional manufacturing base but surviving the tumultuous ructions and changes.

We’re all familiar with this story but fresh figures we report on today reveal the full extent of our city’s transformation from a place of heavy industry to a more white collar workforce.

Health care and social assistance has grown by more than 5000 workers,

Accommodation and food services and education and training have each grown by more than 2000 workers.

While manufacturing jobs have shrunk by more than 4000.

The number of people employed during the decade to 2016 grew from 86,148 to 103,580, a rise of 20.2 per cent, and above the rate of population growth during the same period.

It would be folly to pretend there are no downsides to the monumental disruptive change Geelong has experienced.

Our traditionally blue collar suburbs have not been swept up in the `health and bureaucrat’ boom and still lag behind in youth employment rates.

There are broader concerns about a national economy that eschews large scale manufacturing and is substantially comprised of a finance industry which moves money around but does not actually create anything.

But overall we should be thrilled at the way our city and our people have withstood a buffeting by the winds of change and not only survived but moved forward and prospered.

Geelong’s re-imagining of itself as a health, disability and insurance hub and public service town has been one of the great global transformations.

Certainly there are plenty of buzz words in this field and white collar work does not set hearts on fire the way large scale heavy industry can.

But our success in this area means real jobs for our people.

That means food on the table, shoes on the kids, and self-worth and pride on the street and at home.

We should all be proud of our region’s strength and versatility.