Reason behind region’s odd unemployment rates revealed

TOOWOOMBA’s unemployment rate was 7.5% for the month of July, according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Pictured in Liverpool is the Centrelink office. Picture: Christian Gilles

TOOWOOMBA's unemployment rate was 7.5% for the month of July, according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The region's unemployment rates over the past eight months make for some puzzling reading.

The unemployment rate in January 2020 reached 7.5%, months before COVID-19 hit in.

February's figures went up to 8.4%, while March's figures dropped to 7.2%.

As restrictions were enforced and across the country the economy stalled, Toowoomba's unemployment rate peaked at 11.6% in April - previously reported by the ABS as 12.2%.

In May, the rate dropped to 6.2%, and in June it rose to 10.2%, before being recorded at 7.5% for July.

The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce set up the Jobs Taskforce in June.

University of Southern Queensland Professor Khorshed Alam has been assisting the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce in analysing regional level labour force data.

The first thing to note, he said, was that Toowoomba's unemployment rate was "not behaving normally" and was not aligned to either the national or Queensland averages.

"The second impression is that even before COVID-19, Toowoomba's unemployment rate was increasing significantly," he said.

He said the third thing to note was that in the month of February, Toowoomba's youth unemployment rate was the highest in Australia with 41.8%.

He said his analysis showed Toowoomba's unemployment rate was heavily influenced by its youth unemployment rate, which remained significantly higher than state and national levels.

But uncovering why Toowoomba has such high youth unemployment rate will require further investigation.

Professor Alam suggested forming a stakeholder committee to better understand the demographic makeup of the youth unemployment figures.

"Who are those youth? We need to know that … maybe that will assist in other issues."