Albury-Wodonga employment: Jobs at Harris Farm Markets, V2 Foods, Cheap as Chips
Victoria’s deadly virus outbreak may have had a devastating toll on jobs across most of the state, but Albury-Wodonga is bucking the trend, with a record number of vacancies at one employment agency. Here’s who is hiring.
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Unemployment has fallen in Albury-Wodonga during the pandemic, latest jobs figures have revealed.
While Victoria’s deadly virus outbreak had a devastating toll on jobs across most of the state, unemployment in the Murray region was 4.37 per cent in August, compared to 5.51 per cent for the same time the previous year.
The percentage of unemployed men fell from 6.84 per cent in August last year, to 5.63 per cent this year and for women the rate dropped from 4.18 per cent to 3 per cent.
MADEC Albury manager Don Pirro said he had noticed a change in the supply and demand for jobs during the pandemic, and believed it was due to the unique role the city plays as a border town.
“In the border area some businesses have benefited a little bit by the shutdown because the police force and the ADF have stayed at local hotels and eaten at local eating establishments,” he said.
“Because of Job Keeper, there may also be some people who are not working any hours, but are still counted as employed.”
Mr Pirro said MADEC had had record amounts of job vacancies in the past few weeks.
“We have 50 vacancies this week, but in normal week before the pandemic we might have had 15-20,” he said.
“NQR opened up, they’re a supermarket, we placed four or five job seekers there.
“Cheap as Chips, which just opened a few weeks ago, we’ve had quite a few job seekers placed there.”
“Harris Farm Markets is in the process of opening, they’re currently interviewing and could employ upwards of 35 or 40 people.”
In the region, the unemployment rate has increased slightly, but one gender is being affected more than the other.
In August 2019 the unemployment rate was 3.27 per cent, and rose to 3.81 in August 2020.
The unemployment rate for males actually improved between August 2019 and August 2020, dropping from 4.08 per cent to 3.74 per cent.
Female workers were hit the hardest between 2019 and 2020, with the unemployment rate increasing from 2.26 per cent in 2019 to 3.87 per cent in 2020.
Mr Pirro said when the V2 Foods, a plant based food manufacturer, opened in Wodonga they could be a big new employer for the region.
He said the highest amount of jobs vacancies in Albury-Wodonga were for cleaners and disability support workers.
“We need people doing their Cert IIII n disability yesterday,” Mr Pirro said.
“Currently people can do a Cert IIII for as low as $100 if they have a valid concession.
“You can also do infection prevention control training- we’re going to need more cleaners into the future.”
Across the country the number of people out of work almost doubled from 237,000 to 465,000 people in August.
The number of Victorians looking for a job rose 67 per cent to 130,000 people.
New South Wales was the only state to record a larger increase in unemployment than Victoria.
There, the number of jobless people rose 88 per cent to 149,000 people in the year to August.
Contact Cassandra at cassandra.glover@news.com.au
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