Gold Coast jobs: Glitter Strip named one of Australia’s hardest-working cities
Despite having amazing beaches and hinterland, the Gold Coast is one of Australia’s hardest-working regions, with more people putting in an honest day’s work here than in many other parts of the country.
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The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s hardest-working regions, with more people putting in an honest day’s work here than in many other parts of the country.
New government figures show about seven out of every ten people in the region are punching a clock full-time or part-time — enough to give it one of the highest worker populations per capita.
Darwin claimed Australia’s top spot with 75 per cent of its locals in the workforce, while the Gold Coast recorded the highest employment-to-population ratio outside of capital cities.
The Demographics Group managing director Bernard Salt said the highest employment-to-population ratios were generally found in areas that existed for their industry, such as mining communities.
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Meanwhile, the lowest ratios were in retirement communities where people had worked their working lives and were now entitled to some down time.
“Really, the hardest-working communities are probably (the outer suburbs) where you have young families where both parents work, and they are trying to raise a family and hold down a mortgage,” Mr Salt said.
The portion of women also contributed to a community’s employment-to-population ratio as women were still more likely than men to take time out of the workforce to raise children.
Nationally, the population comprised 50.8 per cent women and 15.4 per cent people aged 65 or older.
In the Gold Coast by comparison, 51 per cent were women and 16 per cent aged 65 years or older.
Mr Salt said there were more working Australians now than 20 years ago as a result of “greater sharing of the income-earning responsibilities of the household”.
The national employment-to-population ratio increased from 58.1 per cent in November, 1998 to 62.6 per cent in November, 2018.
“Women are increasingly skilled and more likely to have a tertiary education,” he said.
“There is also the logic that the Baby Boomer generation in their 60s are less likely to retire from the workforce than preceding generations.
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“If you are 65 and have a university degree and you are still fit and healthy and you do office work, you are less likely to retire than your equivalent 65-year-old 25 years ago, who probably had a manual job and whose body had just worn out with labour.
“Baby Boomers are hanging on and you will see this trend continue … for at least another five years or so.”
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