Economist says Townsville jobs performance outstanding

Townsville has recorded its lowest jobless rate in nine years in an encouraging sign for the city.

Townsville has recorded its lowest jobless rate in nine years with the 12-month average to December diving to 4.5 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

Regional economist Colin Dwyer said it was an outstanding result and came despite Covid-19 playing havoc with sectors such as hospitality, tourism and entertainment.

“Townsville Region’s jobs performance remains outstanding. Jobs numbers have jumped to 118,700, up 6500 for the year to December,” Mr Dwyer said.

“The official 12-month unemployment rate dropped 1.8 (percentage) points year on year to 4.5 per cent,” Mr Dwyer said.

He said the youth unemployment rate in September 2021 was 7.2 per cent and likely to continue improving.

Economist Colin Dwyer with his book Our Fair Share. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Also, the region’s participation rate had improved 2.2 points to 66.2 per cent.

“Part of the reason for the positive jobs performance was a diversified and positive performance across many industries including agriculture, mining, construction, health, education and property,” Mr Dwyer said.

He said there were more females with jobs than males in Townsville region.

Females comprised 50.5 per cent of those employed and had gained 63 per cent of new jobs added since February 2017.

Recent job adverts on Seek revealed a diversified portfolio with the highest numbers in Trades followed by Healthcare and Medical and Manufacturing and Transport.

Energy Vault's grid scale EV1 Tower Commercial Demonstration Unit in Ticino, Switzerland, using its gravity-based energy storage system. Townsville zinc refinery is installing the technology.

The last time Townsville recorded an unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent was in March 2013, while the lowest rate recorded over the past 23 years of available statistics is 3.3 per cent in December 2008.

Mr Dwyer said the region had a different set of challenges compared to the very high rates of unemployment of five years ago.

“Due to Covid disruptions, some tourist and hospitality businesses are underperforming. Insurance remains comparatively expensive. Some skilled workers continue to be in short supply, disrupting production in many industries. The Brisbane Olympics remain a risk/opportunity and the wet season is currently disrupting agriculture, mining, construction, transport and their supply chains,” Mr Dwyer said.

A Hyzon Motors hydrogen truck. Townsville zinc refinery Sun Metals is introducing hydrogen trucks to its operations.

He said part of the solution to maintaining job security was having a diversified portfolio of significant projects and to be innovative in the way we look to the future.

On innovation, he said Sun Metals zinc refinery was doing a great job with its projects to produce hydrogen, use hydrogen trucks and to install gravity energy storage technology.

Originally published as Economist says Townsville jobs performance outstanding