Labour market mends More job opportunities

TOWNSVILLE’S woeful labour market is recovering quickly with website Seek advertising more than 1200 jobs in the region, about twice the number of just a year ago.

Also, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows marked improvement, putting Townsville’s unemployment rate in July at 6 per cent, albeit warning that figure is unreliable.

Even so, recruitment professional Clayton Cook of TP Human Capital said a broad jobs recovery was under way.

“The Seek figures are a very good indication of a substantial increase in job opportunities,” Mr Cook said.

“It reflects the increasing activity we are seeing.

“The good news is that quite a lot of the opportunities are permanent and permanent part- time positions.”

Of the 1230 jobs advertised on Seek yesterday, trades and services ( 186) and healthcare and medical ( 169) comprised the highest categories.

Jobs numbers for other categories included manufacturing, transport and logistics ( 95), construction ( 87), hospitality and tourism ( 87), sales ( 70) and community services and development ( 60).

Mr Cook said job ads had been tracking at a low of about 600 for two or three years before a recovery last October.

His company was now seeing requirements for perma- JOBS COUNTER Jobs advertised in Townsville yesterday nent employees and the return of a “churn” factor where people had more confidence to leave one job and get another.

“Businesses only employ permanent staff when they feel more confident and there’s an increase in activity,” he said.

Mr Cook said the jobs recovery was broad, reflecting Townsville’s diverse economy compared with Cairns and the Whitsundays where 50 to 60 per cent of employment was in hospitality and retail.

He advised people looking for work to be flexible, keep an open mind and be ready.

“They should have their resumes and applications up to date and in good shape and you’ve got to be readily available,” Mr Cook said. “They are commonsense things.”

The ABS figures show the northern region based on Townsville had a labour force of 119,300 in July, up about 10,000 on the same month last year.

Also, the number of people unemployed fell from 11,800 in June to 7100 in July, although the bureau said that estimate was subject to “sampling variability too high for most practical purposes”.

Editorial: page 18