Job on hands fixing figures

A DECLINE in the city’s participation rate poses one of the biggest challenges for Cairns’ employment prospects.

Ivan Neville, the Australian Government’s labour market research and analysis branch manager, is in the Far North today to attend the Mareeba Job Fair.

He spoke to a select group of community leaders last night on the outlook for jobs.

Mr Neville said an ageing population, movement of young people to the cities and a loss of confidence among long-term unemployed all created a challenging environment.

“Our very rough guesstimate is that over the next five years there will be something like 18,000 jobs to be filled in Cairns,” he said.

“The problem is where will the future labour supply come from? Migration is quite strong, but whether that will continue, we’re not sure.

“As well, a third of young people go, so the challenge is whether we can stem the outflow of young people.

“Most jobs being created require post-school qualifications and the Cairns area is lagging behind the national average not only in terms of people going to university, but also taking up apprenticeships.”

Mr Neville said Cairns’ long-term unemployed needed to be given a chance to prove themselves.

He said federal government initiatives such as Launch into Work and the state government’s Back to Work should be used more by employers.

“We know there is a growing number of long-term unemployed and these locals are missing out on jobs,” Mr Neville said.

He believed the participation rate was masking the real unemployment rate.

In 2013, the number of people currently employed or in search of a job was 68.7 per cent. That figure is now 61.1 per cent. Mr Neville also said that the majority of the 18,000 new jobs would not be fulltime positions.