Healthcare jobs demand at two year high across Geelong region

Huge demand across at least one sector is at a two-year high across the Geelong region amid an overall rise in jobs.

Jobs in health and other care-based professions are at a two-year high in the Geelong region amid an overall rise in G21 region jobs.

Caring jobs continue to skyrocket with 150 listed on the Geelong Careers website in September and more than 300 listed in October — the highest point the industry has been at in the last two years.

The monthly total for jobs in the health sector is up from 63 in October last year to 312 last month.

Overall the number of new jobs listed on Geelong Careers in October is up more than 200 from a year ago to 1098.

Marianne Messer, who tracks jobs for Geelong Careers which aggregates jobs in the G21 region, said Barwon Health, Epworth and Deakin University had all contributed to the rise.

“Many of them are Barwon Health jobs and many of them are going to start in 2021,” Ms Messer said.

She said jobs for GPs, researchers, and childcare and school healthcare professionals were listed on Geelong Careers in October.

She said businesses taking closer consideration of occupational health and safety could also be behind the rise in health-related jobs.

In October the G21 region’s top five job industries for job advertisements were trades (163 jobs), health (312), education (78), government (53) and charity 64.

Geelong was the most popular location for jobs in October in the G21 region — which includes the City of Greater Geelong, the Borough of Queenscliffe, and the Colac-Otway, Golden Plains and Surf Coast shires — with 682.

While Colac had 55 jobs advertised in October, and Torquay 25, Avalon 7 and Waurn Ponds 15.

In the G21 region during October 2019, 149 jobs were listed in trades, 63 in the health sector, 99 in education and 50 in the government sector. In October 2019, 831 jobs were listed on Geelong Careers.

Ms Messer expected demand for jobs in construction, health and education to remain strong due to the region’s growing population.

Construction jobs dropped off from 200 in September to about 150 in October, according to Geelong Careers.

Meanwhile jobs in the arts dropped from more than 30 in September to five in October.

The number of users of Geelong Careers also rose from 5,607 in September to 5,662 in October.

The October gains follow the number of vacant construction jobs doubling between August and September.

Job vacancies in the sector rose from 91 in August to 204 in September according to Geelong Careers data.

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Originally published as Healthcare jobs demand at two year high across Geelong region