TOOWOOMBA A CITY SOUTH EAST OF QUEENSLAND IS ONE OF THE BEST CITIES TO FIND A JOB WHERE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS ONLY 1.5% BELWO THE NATIONAL AVERAGE WHERE IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS LOT OF PEOPLE MOVED FOR LIVE STYLE REASONS AND WORK 20TH JANUARY 2014 TOOWOOMBA remains one of the best cities to find a job in Australia with an unemployment rate 1.5 per cent below the national average. Nationwide employment levels took a battering in December with the country shedding 22,000 workers, meaning 722,000 working-age Australians are currently out of a job. Toowoomba has not been immune to the trend but, in a relative sense, has maintained its traditionally strong jobs market with an unemployment rate of 4.2% in September. December figures are not yet available for the region, but Abbertons Human Resources business manager Scott Burton said Toowoomba remained an attractive place for job hunters and employers. The leading indicators in the economy are saying its going to be a good year, Mr Burton said. Unemployment is obviously a lagging indicator so we tend to hear the news after it has happened. There is probably no industry where theres a free ride, but there are still certainly a lot doing well. A decision by Toowoomba mining services company Russell Mineral Equipment to shed 100 staff last month is only now starting to flood the job market with skilled workers. Mr Burton said people working in such boom and bust sectors needed to be aware redundancies were always a possibility. People need to go into those industries with their eyes open, he said. The upside is that a lot of very good people with excellent experience are currently looking for work in Toowoomba. Engineers and workers in other high-end resource and construction industry roles are still the regions most sought-after employees. Those are the industries (in which) the government is talking about increasing the number of skilled migrants this year, Mr Burton said. People are also thinking a lot more about mobile careers - moving where the work is. Weve seen a lot more people moving to Toowoomba over the last 18 months for lifestyle reasons and work. Its good to see that new talent coming to the region. While Toowoomba has fared better than the vast majority of cities, the 4.2% unemployment level is still nowhere near its 2009 low of 1.9%. The jobless rate hit a 10-year high of 4.9% in March last year but has since eased.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 08:49:35 +0000
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