Jobs boost generating confidence

TOWNSVILLE’S jobless rate has fallen to its lowest level in five years as rebuilding from this year’s floods and the winter tourist season boost employment.

There are also more jobs being created in mining support and healthcare.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its regional jobs data for July, estimating the region’s 12-month average jobless rate at 7 per cent, down from 9.5 per cent at the same time last year.

Recruitment professional Clayton Cook of TP Human Capital said 7 per cent was still high but the movement was in the right direction.

“The trend has improved significantly since the recession days of 2016. The total official number of unemployed remained steady at around 8000 people – that’s way better than early 2017 when Townsville had the worst workforce numbers in the country,” Mr Cook said.

“It’s the first time we’ve been back at 7 per cent since June 2014.”

The ABS data shows the workforce count for the Townsville region improved slightly to 107,300, about the same as last year but almost 14 per cent better than 2016.

The participation rate is steady at 62.3 per cent.

Mr Cook said most of his clients in the small, medium, and large business sectors were increasing hiring and training and feeling positive about the future.

His firm was experiencing its strongest inquiry and engagement in six years.

“TP Human Capital and many other local businesses have increased staff levels to cope with the increased activity,” Mr Cook said. “I’m confident that within 12 months we’ll see the unemployment rate around 6 per cent.”

Mission Beach-based analyst Pete Faulkner of Conus Consulting said most indicators were positive for Townsville for the year but that the region’s numbers were still not strong.

In his Conus/cbc Staff Selection Trend report, Mr Faulkner said Townsville’s trend employment had increased 2.3 per cent over the past year compared with 2.1 per cent for Queensland, 2.7 per cent in greater Brisbane and 1.4 per cent in the rest of Queensland.

Mr Faulkner said the labour market performance in Townsville was “hardly impressive” given the low base from which it was coming.

“If there is a positive to take from this data, it is that full-time employment has risen 2900 over the year.”