ALLIES GAME FOR Joint forces on move for massive exercise
MORE than 32,000 Queensland jobs disappeared last year and competition for roles was the highest in the country.
The Department of Employment’s Australian Jobs 2017 report revealed the number of jobs fell 1.3 per cent between November 2015 and November 2016, with a drop of 65,900 full- time roles far outweighing the increase in 33,700 part- time roles.
The national average was 0.7 per cent job growth.
“( In Queensland) the largest numbers of new jobs were created in professional, scientific and technical services ( up by 24,200 or 16.3 per cent), healthcare and social assistance ( 22,800 or 8.3 per cent) and accommodation and food services ( 22,100 or 14.1 per cent),” the report said.
Competition for jobs increased last year, with 19 applicants on average for each Queensland vacancy – up from 16 applicants the year before.
Hays Queensland managing director Darren Buchanan said while competition was high in Queensland, applicants were not necessarily all unemployed. Applicants could be unemployed, from interstate or currently in jobs, he said.
The report found that in November 2016, 4 per cent of Queensland jobs were based in Townsville ( 97,900 workers). TOWNSVILLE- based troops are undertaking their final preparations before they embark on the more than 700km journey to Exercise Talisman Sabre early next week.
Convoys of vehicles from Lavarack Barracks will begin hitting the Bruce Highway from Monday to travel to Shoalwater Bay, north of Rockhampton, with more to follow later in the week by air.
The Talisman Sabre series of exercises is a major Australian and United States military training exercise focused on the planning and conduct of mid- intensity “high end” war.
This will be the seventh time the exercise has been conducted and will involve more than 30,000 Australian and US defence personnel.
The first of the Townsville troops left the city yesterday aboard HMAS Canberra and on Wednesday aboard HMNZS Canterbury of the Royal New Zealand Navy.
Commanding Officer 1RAR Lieutenant Colonel Ben McLennan said it took up to two years of planning and countless rehearsals to ensure personnel were moved to Central Queensland safely.
“It’s a great rehearsal for having to deploy a large coalition force somewhere in the world,” he said. “It’s a very austere exercise. “Soldiers and officers will be living in the field in spartan conditions, exposed to the elements for an extended period and that is the type of training we want to do so if we have to do it real- time we’ve experi-