Jobs bonanza will lure workers north
TOWNSVILLE’S recognition as one of the top 10 for job creation regions across the country promises to lure jobseekers looking to take the next step in their careers.
The region has powered through the post-pandemic recovery period, creating thousands of jobs over the past year, which are making living and working in Townsville an alluring prospect, regional economist Colin Dwyer says.
He said that there were many more jobs on offer with recent job advertisement numbers revealing a thoroughly diverse range of positions across a variety of industries.
“Townsville region’s jobs performance has been nothing less than outstanding. Jobs numbers have jumped to 114,600 (higher if Defence personnel included) up 4200 for the year to July,” Mr Dwyer said.
“The official 12 month unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 per cent and the region’s participation rate improved; it’s a decade since Townsville region has seen this sort of performance.
“Part of the reason for the positive jobs performance was a bumper month of events with NAFA, Ephemera and two Townsville 400 races.”
In addition to the big events, he said health, education and construction activity was creating job opportunities in Townsville region.
As of Sunday, employment website SEEK was advertising 1654 jobs for the Townsville region.
TP Human Capital director Clayton Cook said recent job adverts on SEEK revealed a substantial variety of jobs on offer, in the best performance since 2012-13.
“The highest number of jobs advertised was in Trades (70) followed by Healthcare and Medical (69),” he said.
“Government and Defence job adverts performed well with 47 and Education and Training and Community Services both with 41 adverts,” Mr Cook said. “In total, in the week ending August 20, there were 535 new job adverts around Townsville region and 1702 (new and older) job ads in total.
“Compared to the same time last year, job ad numbers were up 36 per cent – a strong recovery.”
Across North Queensland, Mr Cook said Townsville job ads were performing better than Cairns and on a par with Mackay.
“There were over 5000 jobs on offer north of Mackay, with over 35 per cent available in the Townsville region,” he said.
“North Queensland (above Mackay) relies heavily on foreign workers especially in Hospitality and Agriculture.
That pool of workers has dried up and we need to encourage domestic job seekers, Boomerangers and Vespas to come North.”
Vespas – a phrase coined by demographer Bernard Salt – are Virus Escapees Seeking Provincial Australia, while Boomerangers, a term used by Mr Dwyer, describes people who left Townsville and have returned to the city.
By talking up these positive job figures, it was hoped that more local job seekers would put their hands up for work, in addition to attracting workers from other parts of Australia.