Fact check needed for MPs’ claim

Figures not quite accurate

LEADER of the Queensland Opposition Deb Frecklington yesterday claimed in a letter to the editor sent to The Chronicle that unemployed Toowoomba residents waited 64 weeks to find work.

“New figures have shown that on average, job seekers in Toowoomba are spending 64 weeks looking for a job,” Ms Frecklington said.

“Queenslanders are facing the longest job search wait times in the country with the time taken to find a job more than doubling since Annastacia Palaszczuk became Premier.”

LNP member for Toowoomba South David Janetzki also ran with that same figure in an interview with The Chronicle.

“It takes longer for someone in Toowoomba to find a job than it does for the earth to revolve around the sun,” he said before being corrected. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, that figure of 64 weeks was a monthly average for November last year - with the actual average wait time for Toowoomba jobseekers to find a job in 2017 being 33 weeks.

That is one of the lowest in Queensland.

“For example, while for November 2017, the median duration was 64 weeks, it was 44 weeks in the previous month and as low as five weeks in January 2017,” an ABS spokesman said.

“Toowoomba has hovered around 25-30 weeks over the past 2-3 years but has increased recently to about 33 weeks.”