COVID-19: Unemployment rate doubles in south-east Sydney
Shocking new data reveals the true figure of our locally unemployed after COVID hit the south-east’s biggest industries hard. While the aviation, freight and racing industry suffer, there are still 250 local jobs on offer. CAN YOU OFFER A LOCAL A JOB?
Southern Courier
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New data has revealed the extent of unemployment across southeast Sydney as employers continue to be hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic including in the aviation and racing industries.
In the region which incorporates Sydney’s inner south, the unemployment rate almost doubled from 2.72 per cent in August 2019 to 5.36 per cent in August 2020.
Meanwhile in the eastern suburbs, the unemployment rate jumped from 2.96 per cent in August 2019 to 4.37 per cent in August 2020.
A Sydney Airport spokesman told the Southern Courier the current COVID-19 situation was continuing to impact jobs at the airport in Mascot.
“In August, we shared with our team the difficult news that we would need to reduce the size of our workforce because of the Covid crisis and ongoing uncertainty about the recovery.
“This restructure affected 118 out of 540 jobs representing 22 per cent of our workforce.
“We have tried to avoid any impacts to operational or frontline roles and roles connected to safety also remain sacrosanct.
“As passenger traffic grows we are hopeful of seeing employment improve across all of the businesses and organisations connected to the airport.”
About 33,500 people worked at Sydney Airport prior to COVID-19 hitting, across a range of airlines and separate companies, with many of those organisations being forced to cut jobs.
Australia’s largest airline Qantas – which has its headquarters in Mascot – has cut thousands of jobs following heavy restrictions on travel and border closures.
Meanwhile, the Australian Turf Club (ATC) which operates Royal Randwick Racecourse is another big employer in southeast Sydney which has been hit hard this year.
Prior to COVID-19, and depending on the time of year, the club could employ up to 2000 casuals to work at Royal Randwick along with 80 full-time employees.
“During March to June many casual shifts were lost due to their being no crowds which had a significant impact on the business of the ATC,” an ATC spokesman said.
“Revenue has been down by almost 50 per cent across many racedays and non-raceday events.
“On racedays, we were unable to allow members or spectators for several months and continue to be restricted on numbers by current NSW Government Public Health Orders.”
He said while they were forced to let go many causal shifts, JobKeeper had helped the club retain their full-time workers.
“Our staff have also taken the opportunity to upskill and multi-task when certain parts of the business were affected particularly through March, April and May.”
Figures show women have lost more jobs than men across southeast Sydney between August 2019 and August 2020 despite the opposite trend being recorded for NSW and Australia as a whole.
Meanwhile, some industries in southeast Sydney are bucking the trend and are looking for more employees, according to jobs website Adzuna.
Adzuna currently has more than 250 vacant jobs listed across southeast Sydney with the most common jobs being in healthcare and nursing, trade and construction, and hospitality and catering.
Randwick has 30 jobs going (including eight in trade and construction and six in hospitality and catering), Maroubra and South Maroubra have 29 jobs (including 15 in hospitality and catering), Coogee and South Coogee have 44 jobs (including 18 in hospitality and catering), Kensington has 35 jobs (including 19 in hospitality and catering), and the Botany Bay area has 75 jobs (including in 17 in trade and construction and 11 in healthcare and nursing).