COVID-19 has southern suburbs unemployment rate increased from 5.21 to 6.99 per cent
The unemployment rate in Adelaide’s south has climbed to almost seven per cent – but some employers are seeing a turnaround and are even hiring more staff. Find out where the jobs are.
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When COVID restrictions forced the closure of non-essential businesses, thousands of employees were left wondering how they would afford to live.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for August 2020, unemployment rates in the southern suburbs rose from 5.21 per cent to 6.99 per cent compared to the previous year.
For men, the rate increased from 5.03 to 6.61 per cent, and for women the increase was even worse, with the rate moving from 5.40 to 7.40 per cent.
But with some restrictions easing and the busy Christmas period approaching, some employers are now seeing an increase in trade and are hiring new staff to keep up.
According to job search engine Adzuna, Lonsdale and Noarlunga Downs were the top two southern suburbs for job seekers to look in with 21 positions advertised while Aldinga and Marion each had 15 jobs posted.
Port Willunga restaurant Star of Greece has returned all of its staff to work and is starting to hire more.
“We stood up all the full time and part time staff and returned them to their payment once we were able to reopen to our normal hours,” owner Nikki Govan said.
“We will be expanding our hours over summer and therefore will need to hire more staff.
“We have already commenced our training programs to get ready.”
Star of Greece casual waitress Amy Brown and her partner – dessert chef Harlen Looseley – were stood down from their positions in March.
“It was pretty daunting, I’d never had to deal with that ever before and I was in a very secure casual position before,” Ms Brown said.
“It was stressful thinking where is the money going to come from.
“I was lucky because I did have some savings so I was just chipping into my savings and I was fortunate to know if I needed to I could fall back onto my parents.
“I’m not sure what I would have done if I didn’t have any money to fall back on.”
While all Star of Greece staff have been able to return to work, there is still uncertainty ahead with continuing restrictions and changes to JobKeeper.
Ms Govan said the restaurant could only operate at 70 per cent capacity and would not be eligible for the next round of JobKeeper.
“All our other expenses such as Council rental and utilities remain the same, so we have to try and make things work under these restrictions,” she said.
“We do hope people understand that in order to survive, we must change the way we do business and maximise the number of patrons we can accommodate during service times.”
After the automotive stores he was managing experienced a downturn in trade due to COVID, Craig Fisher found himself 50 and unemployed for the first time in his life.
Mr Fisher, of Willunga, is still waiting for his JobSeeker request to be processed and has been unable to find new work.
“I was quite secure in my position before but obviously COVID affected it,” he said.
“Obviously now there’s large financial restraints, I’m looking but it doesn’t seem like there’s a huge amount of jobs around in that sort of work.”