Toowoomba Regional Jobs Committee tackle unemployment

Committee meets to tackle staggering Darling Downs unemployment rates.

ON THE JOB: At the Toowoomba Workforce Strategy breakfast presentation, (from left) Jenelle Choyce from the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training, Cr Rebecca Vonhoff from Toowoomba Regional Council, RDA board member Peter Wilson, RDA project officer Lauren Russell, RDA director Trudi Bartlett, member for Toowoomba North Trevor Watts and member for Condamine Pat Weir. Photo: Contributed

At a staggering 21.9 per cent, Toowoomba has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the state, but now thanks to Regional Development Australia, and Toowoomba Regional Jobs Committee something is being done about these concerning figures.

“It’s not necessarily that there are no jobs out there,” director of Regional Development Australia for Darling Downs and South West, Trudi Bartlett said.

“What we’re actually finding is there simply isn’t enough appropriately skilled employees to fill these positions, it’s not just a matter of creating more jobs but rather upskilling and training more unemployed people in the fields where there are plenty of opportunities.”

Ms Bartlett met alongside fellow members of the Toowoomba Regional Jobs Committee, local and state politicians as well as trainers, educators and industry representatives this week to discuss and share findings and recommendations as part of the Toowoomba Workforce Strategy.

The state funded initiative is designed to create more cohesion across the Darling Downs when it comes to all things employment with the long term goal of lowering the local unemployment rate back down to pre-COVID figures.

RDA project officer Lauren Russell said the industries experiencing the largest growth in terms of employment include health and social assistance, agriculture, education and training and construction.

“With $7 billion dollars worth of major developments currently taking place around the Downs region, there’s definitely plenty of job vacancies available, but we’re also experiencing this apparent disconnect right now where we also have a significantly high rate of unemployment,” she said.

As of December 2020 Toowoomba’s overall unemployment rate stood at 6.2 per cent, 1.8 per cent higher than it was in December 2019 (4.4 per cent).

“As part of the Toowoomba Workforce Strategy we’ve identified several factors contributing to these figures and are currently working with a number of stakeholders to develop ways our region can tackle some od these issues,” Ms Russell said.

“The biggest barriers to local employment right now include lack of transport, internet connectivity, casualisation of the workforce, English proficiency and lack of affordable rental housing.

“So there’s plenty of areas we need to address as a regional area if we want to see Toowoomba’s unemployment rates get back to where they were pre-COVID.”
Ms Russell and Ms Bartlett said RDA and the Toowoomba Regional Jobs Committee were dedicated to delivering a number of new initiatives to bridge the gap between the local work force and unemployed people seeking work.

“We’ve launched a new employment website called employtoowoomba.org.au which is designed to be utilised by a number of Toowoomba entities including employers, trainers, businesses, social service providers and educators as a cohesive way for everyone in the community to find out everything to do with employment opportunities in the region,” Ms Bartlett said.

“We will also be hosting another virtual job fair after the success of last year’s, so stay tuned for that in last March to early April.

“There’s also a planning forum taking place in on March 11 with presentations from major projects as well as training and education providers who can then use this information to better structure their courses and programs to suit the current employment situation in Toowoomba.

“Ultimately the Toowoomba Workforce Strategy is seeking to fill in all the gaps we currently have in our local workforce by providing insight into the industries that are crying out for more employees with the goal of significantly reducing Toowoomba’s unemployment rate over the next several years.”